Nightfall
by LadyShiin
Summary: KB Darkfic: In a world where Psychics are hunted. Kaoru must join forces with the devil that stalks her people if she is going to avenge her family.
1. Chapter 1

AN:

I'm back Thank you to all who were waiting for me to get back on my feet. My other fics are being worked on and will be updated soon. Here's a new one that's been in my head for a while.

Enjoy!

Shiin

Chapter One:  
Loss

The sky above head was overcast. The clouds that covered the sky appeared to be darker than they actually were due to the dome that completely covered the City; arching high above even the tallest of skyscrapers.

Kaoru squinted and caught a flash of silver-metal; the Dome. Cocking her head in its direction she listened intently and felt more than heard the vibration of it as it powered the city. Keeping the people in and everything else out. Not that there was anything to keep out. After The Final War, the people had fled into The City, anything outside out of it had been wiped out in an atomic blast that had left behind nothing but a barren wasteland.

It was said that some residue of the blast had managed to leak its way into the city and as a result Psychics were born – genetic-mutations and anomalies whose twisted genes gave them powers normal people didn't have. To move things, to make fire, to see in to the future; and to read minds.

Kaoru was a Psychic. Her power was of the latter.

A gentle breeze played with a lock of black hair, which had somehow worked its way loose of the tight braid it had been put in. It was an artificial breeze, created by the great machines that lay in the heart of the City and whose purpose was the parody of climate control.

Kaoru lazily tucked the free strand behind an ear and give it a quick pat into place. In the other hand a plastic bag dangled from between her fingers, swinging gently back and forth as she walked. It was full of food and other necessities – all in all not bad for a days worth of filching in stealing – at least by Kaoru's standards.

She could feel the gentle buzz of voices against her mind-shields. Gentler now, and softer; not as insistent or painfully loud mainly due to the fact that she had moved away from the bustling, packed areas of the City to another part that was more deserted.

Kaoru kept her shields up regardless.

As a general rule – and she was no exception – telepaths preferred to keep another's thoughts out of their heads. They liked to be the ones who invaded the other's mind, and not the other way around.

The street in which she walked was home to one of the worst areas of the City. Once a long, long time ago – soon after the Great Movement – it had been a prosperous, high class section of the City. But since then it had fallen on hard times – the rich occupants had moved out in haste and had never come back.

They probably never would too.

The breeze blew again pushing an empty paper bag across the street in front of Kaoru's path. She watched it go by, golden eyes following its progress. Like everything else on the street, the paper bag was dirty and stained.

Oh it had not always been so.

The street held a scent of decay. The paint was peeling off of the faces of the buildings. In their former days of glory they would have been considered handsome and graceful. All of that had vanished with the passing of the years. Left behind in their places were the hollow empty shells of what the street had once been.

The house toward which Kaoru walked was a dark red brick, apartment building. It sagged slightly as if age and the thing's it had seen during its life had weighed so heavily down upon it until it could no longer keep itself upright.

During the course of if life it had been many things: a boardinghouse, an apartment, a schoolhouse, a brothel…. before finally being deserted completely. Years had passed before people had come back to the live in it, Kaoru's family and the handful of other squatters who had taken refuge inside of it.

There was no electricity or heat and it was filthy. But it provided a roof over their heads and was a better alternative to sleeping on the streets as many of them had been doing. The filth could be, and was, cleaned up.

Kaoru stopped in front of it, head tilted to the side and regarding it. If she looked closely enough she could just almost see what it had looked like before. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine. The brick would have been a brighter, cheery red. The shutters on both sides of the window would have been freshly painted and whole. Perhaps white, or maybe green. 

The railing on either side of the steeps that lead to the doorway of the house would have been black and shining, not the rust red color that they were now. The steps themselves would have been clean – cleaner at least then they were currently. Void of the graffiti that covered them that consisted of swears and innuendos.

The houses, the entire street too would have looked different. Cleaner, brighter, completely and utterly whole, the ever-present graffiti would have disappeared. The smashed and broken windows would have been sparkling and unbroken.

The air of decay and sadness that hung over the street would be gone. It would be replaced by a happier, prouder feeling. This was a street to respect. This was a good street, an honest street. One that was full of nice and happy people. Not the druggies, homeless and psychics (though technically a Psychic was most often all three).

Sighing Kaoru bounded up the steps and opened the door, slipping inside. She turned right and went up another pair of steps until she reached the second floor. Down the hallway until she reached the second to last door.

She stopped before and knocked three times. A moment later it opened and Leiko's face appeared around the corner. Her lead-green eyes narrowed when she saw Kaoru but she fell back to open the door.

"What did you get?" She demanded as Kaoru entered.

Kaoru made to answer but the next second she was nearly bowled over as a young girl slammed into her, laughing.

Kaoru flailed her arms in mock-pretense of trying to catch her balance. The child wrapped securely around her middle giggled.

"Almost got me there Dove-chan," Kaoru smiled, stroking the girl's blond curls with her free hand.

Dove beamed up at her, blue eyes sparkling and a dimple indenting her left cheek.

"You're nearly getting as big as I am, Chibi." Kaoru teased.

Dove pulled away still smiling. Her eyes drifted to the plastic bag Kaoru held in one hand and she raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Yes," Kaoru said. "I got your chocolate for you." She fished out of the bag a large bar of chocolate and held it out to Dove.

Dove leapt forward to give her another hug and then snatched the bar of chocolate from her outstretched hand and disappeared into one of the back rooms of the apartment.

Leiko snorted next to her and Kaoru caught the scent of smoke as she pulled a lighter and a packet of cigarettes from a back pocket and lit one. Kaoru wondered for a moment where she got them, since Leiko never left the house and decided it was Ricky.

"Where's Ricky?" She set the bag down on the dilapidated green couch.

"Asleep," Leiko's mouth quirked around the cigarette. "So what did you get us?"

"Food and some medicine – Dove's had a cough the past couple of weeks. Also managed to snatch a few dollars..." Kaoru dug into her jeans and pulled out a roll of bills and tossed them next to the couch.

Leiko's eyes narrowed. "No Wunder?"

"Mikael wasn't selling."

"So what about Plaktu on 22nd street?"

"Moved, cops were sniffing around and it wasn't safe."

"Barou?"

"Got caught in a gang's crossfire the other day and his head was blown off."

"Dammit," Leiko snarled.

"You don't need another dose anyway. It's only been a week." Kaoru said softly.

"I do need it!" Leiko snapped back. Kaoru felt a slight tremor go through the floor.

"I thought Ricky had some extra."

"I used it up yesterday." Leiko gave her a considering look. "What about you?"

"Gave the last of it to Dove."

"Bitch." Leiko cursed her.

Kaoru closed her eyes. She could see what was happening to Leiko. Had been seeing it the last couple of months but didn't want to acknowledge it. Wunder-tainted madness.

The very drug that helped a Psychic control their powers and give them a measure of sanity also tore it to shreds and left them a walking-zombie who did nothing but rage until they were finally destroyed.

Leiko had always been short-tempered and snarly but it had gotten worse in the last few months. Even Ricky couldn't placate her.

"Leiko you need to stop taking it."

"Like hell." The wooden chair behind Kaoru snapped in two as Leiko flung out a tendril of her power.

"It's not good for you."

"It's not good for you either but you take it!"

"You're not a telepath!" Kaoru snapped.

"Oh so the fact that I can throw things around and you hear everybody bitchin' in your head makes you special?"

Kaoru was saved from replying when she heard Ricky's soft thread on the floor behind her.

"What's going on."

"She didn't get any Wunder!" Leiko latched onto him like a limpet.

Ricky gave her cool silver eyes. "That true?"

"Tell her to get her own damn Wunder. I'm the one running around like a bloody errand-girl." Kaoru brushed past him as she left the room.

Behind her she heard Leiko shriek a curse and there was the sound of something shattering.

Kaoru sighed and shook her head.

It hadn't always been like this… When she had first met them Leiko had been cheery and happy (in comparison to how she was now) and Ricky had, had some semblance of life to him. Now Leiko was going crazy and all of Ricky's life had been sucked out of him by catering to her ever more volatile whims.

She found Dove curled up on the futon in the room they shared. Dove sat up as she entered and gave her a questioning look.

Sighing again, Kaoru sat down beside her and closed her eyes.

Everything was so fucked up.

A gentle touch on her arm made her open her eyes and she saw Dove looking at curiousity in her gaze.

"What's the matter?" Kaoru asked.

Dove nodded.

"Leiko's a bitch and Ricky's a doormat."

Dove frowned.

"I know," Kaoru shrugged. "But what can I do other than knock Leiko upside the head and hog-tie her."

Dove's mouth twitched as she repressed a smile.

Kaoru stuck her tongue out at her. "Come here Chibi." She opened her arms and Dove climbed into her lap.

"What have you been doing today?" Kaoru rocked her gently back and forth.

Dove shook her head.

"Not much eh?"

A slight nod.

Kaoru hugged her.

Dove… had it only been six months since she had found her? The child-prostitute; her throat slit and left to die by some pedophile John. Kaoru had brought her back to the house and managed to keep her alive. Psychics heal fast and Dove had needed all of her healing ability to live.

She had not spoken since, Kaoru did not know if it was the trauma of what she had been through, her vocal cords may have been damaged or she was just naturally a mute. She knew she could just pry the answers she wanted out of her mind with barely a thought, but she had not. Kaoru wanted Dove to tell her.

She had, however, gotten Dove's revenge for her. It was a simple matter of pulling the psychic imprints out of the alley where she had found her and following them until she found the bastard who had tried to kill Dove.

A cop.

A fucking cop.

The City's finest all-right.

She found him in a Gentleman's club – getting a lap dance from a scantily clad girl. It was the simple matter of twisting a few things here and there inside his head. To all around him it appeared he had suddenly gone insane. Screaming bloody murder and then taking a knife and slitting his own throat in poetic irony.

Dove touched her cheek, pulling Kaoru out of her thoughts.

"What's the matter little one?"

Dove closed her eyes and Kaoru felt a gentle rap against her mind-shields. Lowering them Kaoru felt Dove slip inside.

Kaoru projected the image of a garden. Roses and a waterfall and butterflies flying in the air. Dove sat down in a bench with her head bowed and hands clasped between her knees.

What is it? Kaoru asked gently.

Bad things… Dove 'looked' up and Kaoru saw her blue eyes had glazed over. She was in the grip of a vision.

What kind of bad things? Kaoru 'sat' down beside her and stroked her hair.

Painful bad things… Kaoru thought she saw a flicker of fire in Dove's eyes but couldn't be sure.

Are you going to be ok? Kaoru questioned.

Dove shook her head. I don't know it's too tangled. For a moment her eyes turned gold and then the color faded away. In the end… it'll be ok… I think it'll be ok… Tears slipped down her face and she turned toward Kaoru choking back a sob and burying her face in Kaoru's lap.

Kaoru crooned softly and stroked her back and hair. Dove cried until she fell asleep.

Kaoru pulled herself out of her mind and found Dove curled up against her, as asleep as she had been in her mind. Kaoru stood up and pulled a blanket over Dove's thin shoulders. With a gentle stroke to her cheek she left the door.

Ricky looked up as she entered, his silver eyes looking drained.

Leiko sat beside him puffing another cigarette. The smell of smoke was heavy in the air and Kaoru wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"Go get some Wunder." Ricky said.

"Tell Leiko to get it, she's the one that wants it."

"Leiko isn't fit to be outside." Ricky said softly.

"Then why don't you get it?" Kaoru asked.

"Because I'm the only one who can contain her if she goes crazy."

Beside him Leiko gave a soft snigger.

Kaoru ground her teeth. Knocking Leiko out sounded wonderful.

"Fine," she grit out.

Ricky picked up the money she had brought in and tossed it to her.

"Get the good stuff," Leiko told her.

No I'll get you rat poison. Kaoru grumbled mentally.

Raking her bangs out of her eyes she left the house.

As he turned down the street she felt the barest brush against her mental-shields.

Be safe Kaoru.

Dove's voice.

It took some time for Kaoru to locate a dealer. A reputable dealer was even harder to find. Since Kaoru had no desire to end up dead from a dose of so-called Wunder, it took some time for her to find someone who sold the genuine stuff.

She found Mikael six blocks away from his normal spot after two hours of cruising around the streets. Night had fallen and the lights had flickered on. The ones that actually worked – so everything was dim and hard to see. Her eyes adjusted to it quickly.

"I thought you weren't selling today." She said as she sidled up to him.

Mikael jerked as she appeared, his face was white and had three days growth of stubble.

"Had to move. We're all moving. The cops are out in force and they're cracking down hard." He muttered.

"So I noticed." Kaoru commented dryly. The red-uniformed officers stood out like a sore thumb and there were indeed more than usual. Part of the reason it had taken so long to find someone who sold Wunder was because she was dodging the cops not wanting to have to tangle with them.

"You got it?" She asked.

Mikael grinned, "don't I always baby?"

Kaoru rolled her eyes and dug out some bills from her pocket.

Mikael shook his head at the money. "Uh-uh, it's twice as much today due to the difficulties of sellin'."

"Prick," Kaoru muttered and pulled some more pills out. "If you weren't the only dealer I trusted I'd have knocked you and taken the Wunder without even paying."

"Love you too sweetheart." Mikael grinned and pulled out a brown packet of Wunder.

Kaoru snatched it from his hand and tucked it away.

"Pleasure doing business with you!" Mikael called after her, as she walked.

She was half-way home when it ripped through her brain, slamming into her with such force she reeled and nearly fell.

Dove screaming and the scent of smoke assaulted her.

"You bitch!" Kaoru snarled. If Leiko had done anything to Dove she would kill her, herself!

She took off in a dead run toward the house. The speed all Psychics were gifted with, making her blur.

The house was in flames, thick oily smoke reaching skyward. The windows had shattered and shards of glass lay on the ground reflecting the fire.

Dove! Kaoru screamed. Dove!

She ran toward the door but a burst of fire send her stumbling back.

Dove!

Kaoru? Dove's voice, faint and choked sounding.

Is there anyway for you to get out? Kaoru cried frantically.

No… I… don't know who set it… a Pyro… Leiko and Ricky are already gone… Someone wants you dead… He was asking after you… Dove's voice was fading.

Tears were coursing down Kaoru's cheeks.

Dove-chan…

Love you Kaoru.. Dove's reply was weak. Love you always…

There was the sound of something breaking and suddenly the house pulled in upon itself. The crash of the house and roar of the flames drowned out Kaoru's screams.

She didn't hear it, too wrapped up in grief. There was a movement behind her and Kaoru turned. Then something slammed into the back of her head and everything went dark.

Kaoru groaned softly as she pulled herself out of unconsciousness.

Where was she?

Slowly she opened her eyes and found she could see nothing but darkness. She was tied to a chair. Her legs and arms strapped to it. Cautiously she sent out a tendril of power only to find it rebound and burn her.

It was then she felt the light pressure of a band across her forehead.

A Crown.

The bloody bastards had put a Crown on her!

Locking her power into her, if she tried to use it she would only hurt herself. If she persisted she could permanently damage herself, burn her power into nothingness or even kill herself.

So she did nothing, she waited to see what was going on.

Light flooded the room suddenly, blinding her.

The door crashed open and several people filed in. They were the red uniforms of Cops, gold number emblazoned across the left breast. Fifty-Four.

"So you're awake." A man stepped from behind them. He was taller than anyone she had seen before, his shoulders broad. Long black hair was tied back into a ponytail and he wore the blue-silver uniform of a high-ranking officer.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Hiko."

In response, Kaoru snarled at him. "Bastard." She knew who he was.

Hiko shrugged and raised a hand. The other police filed out of the room.

Save one.

He was small, barely taller than she herself was. His hair was tied back into a low-pony tail, flame red in color and his eyes were gold. A cross-shaped scar was on his left-cheek.

Kaoru knew who he was too and her stomach clenched.

Hiko – Commander of the Police. Called the Puppetmaster by the psychics on the street and The Battousai, the most lethal of all the puppets.

"I know what you're thinking?"

"Oh really?" Kaoru shot back. "You're a Psychic? I thought all you did was command them to be killed."

"Smart-mouthed brat." Hiko muttered.

Kaoru snarled at him.

"No we did not kill your family. A Pyro-Psychic did. We came upon your… home in flames… just before you rushed onto the scene. Sloppy… very sloppy. You should have been able to discover us and not leave yourself open for an attack."

"So sorry I didn't oblige you."

Hiko ignored her. "So I'm offering you a proposition."

"Oh?" Kaoru snapped. "I'm all ears."

"Work for us."

Kaoru blinked, "what?"

"Work for us."

"Yeah that's what I thought you said." Kaoru narrowed her eyes. "What's the catch?"

"You use your powers to aid us… we will supply you – a restricted supply at that – with the Wunder you need and in return we will help you find who killed your… family."

"Sounds too good to be true. What will you do if I say no?"

Hiko smiled grimly. "Put a few well-placed rumors on the street that you work for me."

Kaoru stared at him. "I'd have a price on my head and people lining up to kill me. You probably know Psychics hate you with a passion."

"Of that I'm well aware of. But since you seem to have someone already wanting to kill you; why not take the protection that working for us offers?"

"Damned if I do, damned if I don't." Kaoru muttered.

"Precisely," Hiko waved an arm in the Battousai's direction. He was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed but Kaoru didn't doubt he was listening and taking everything in. "You will be working with Kenshin."

Dancing with the devil… Kaoru sighed. He was the bogeyman of their kind. He had more Psychic-accounted kills on his head than any other of the cops on the force. The only one who came close to him was the Wolf. If half the rumors attributed to him were true… Kaoru didn't know if she'd be safer left on the street and declining their offer.

"Why do you want a Psychic anyway? Everything is going to go to hell in a hand basket once your force finds out that you've employed a Psychic."

"My reasons for wanting you are my own."

"Bastard." Kaoru snapped. He was infuriating.

Hiko laughed softly. "So do you accept?"

"I accept," Kaoru replied levelly.

"Good," Hiko smiled. "She's all yours Kenshin."

Kenshin opened his eyes at the sound of his name and looked in her direction.

Kaoru choked back a snarl as his golden eyes met hers… a Psychic and the greatest Psychic-Killer in the city being forced to work together.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Leiko… Ricky… Dove… I'm sorry. I will find out who killed you and you will have your revenge. Until then, she would just have to keep the Battousai from killing her and doing likewise to him.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Notes:

Brief History:

Several hundred years ago there was a great war being fought. To call it a World War was an understatement. Countries were torn apart fighting themselves and one another. Sick and weary of the endless fighting, the people began to build dome-cities in which to escape it. Just as they fled to them an atomic bomb was dropped leaving everything it touched a wasteland. Two generations later the Psychics started to appear, the result of twisted genes caused by the radiation. As far as anyone knows there is nothing outside the Domed-City but a wasteland. They are the only and last survivors in the world and are quite happy staying where they are.

In the City there are extreme variations between rich and poor. There literally is no middle class you are either extremely wealthy or poverty-stricken. The percentage of that is about 8 rich and 92 poor. Jobs are extremely hard to find but while the poor are doing terribly the rich are doing very well for themselves. Many of the people living on the streets do not even have basic education in reading or math and have no future whatsoever to help them get off the streets.

**Wunder**: A mind drug. When a Psychic's powers start developing (usually around puberty but it happens rarely even earlier – as was Dove's case) they cannot control it and so turn to Wunder to help them get through the first difficult months until they get a handle on their power. By the time they can manage it, they are completely hooked on it. Wunder is an extremely addictive drug that initially gives stability and boosts your power even as it is eroding your sanity and slowly killing you.

**Psychics:** They comprise about 18 of the population. Their genes are twisted and mutated and as a result of the radiation and give them powers which usually start appearing around/just before puberty. Powers can range from Telepathy, Telekinetic, Pyrokinetic, Hydrokinetic – water kinetic, Healing, Pre-cognition (ability to see the future) most Psychics only have one power, a rare few have an extra booster power (as Leiko had the ability to heal but was also a telekinetic) but the power is secondary and never as strong as the primary power.

Psychics are hated in the city, killed at best, carted away to labs to work as guinea pigs at worst. They are considered extremely dangerous, crazy druggies who would kill you all in your sleep if they could.

**Police:** They fall into the category of the rich as the higher ups in power keep them well fed, well-kept and for the most part happy (who else is going to do the dirty work?). They're hatred of the Psychics and vice versa is well known. There are sixty squads (made up of 5 people a squad) devoted especially to eradicating Psychics. Kenshin's is number fifty four.

Let me know if you need any more Author's Notes or are confused about something in the story!

Shiin

000

Kaoru sat in the back of the car, her hands cuffed behind her back and the Crown still around her head and glared at Kenshin's back happily imagining stabbing him or strangling him.

Kenshin felt her eyes on him and turned his head. He quirked an eyebrow reading the intent in her eyes and she did her best to give him a neutral smile.

"Where are we going?"

"Squad Fifty Four's quarters."

Kaoru shook her head. Wonderful. She was being kept in a compound with a bunch of police.

Someone shoot her.

Now.

Quickly.

"Are we there yet?" She grit her teeth.

She felt the car slow to a stop.

"Now we are," Kenshin opened his door and got out, leaving Kaoru alone in the car.

"Great," Kaoru growled. "Leave me alone in the car. I can't get out because my hands are cuffed behind my blasted back."

A moment later the door opened.

Kaoru glared at Kenshin and scooted across the seat and got out a bit unsteadily.

She really, really wanted use of her hands right about now.

He closed the door behind her and then lead her up the stairs of the large brick house – it remind her with a pang of her former residence only much cleaner, well kept, and without the druggies huddling on the corners.

"This is where you live?" Kaoru asked a little miffed that he kept his back turned to her. Either he was a fool (she knew that not to be true – no one got the amount of Psychic kills he was rumored to have and was a fool) or he just didn't consider her a threat (take the Crown off her head and she'd show him just how much of a threat she could be).

"Yes," Kenshin replied curtly. He pulled out a key and unlocked the door and she followed him inside the house.

"Oi Kenshin, you back?" A voice called out from down the hallway.

Kaoru felt herself tensing as four people appeared all wearing the matching red uniforms with the number fifty four emblazoned that marked them as Police members of Squad Fifty Four.

The one who had called out stopped his eyes widening as he took in her appearance.

"Kenshin what the fuck is a Psychic doing here?"

"New recruit," Kenshin said. He touched the series of numbers on her handcuffs and the cuffs sprang open. Kaoru sighed and rotated her shoulders to ease the ache and rubbed at her wrists, grimacing at the red lines in her skin.

Kenshin's fingers brushed the Crown around her forehead and it fell, him catching it and pocketing it.

Kaoru's power rushed back to her and she immediately wished it hadn't.

Iizuka – the one who had spoke's – thoughts made her feel dirty. Dammit if he didn't stop thinking that way about her he'd end up with either a mother-bitch migraine or his brains dribbling out his ears.

She flung up a shield and was thankful when his voice faded from her mind.

Yuck.

The taller one was Takasugi. The petite spike-haired woman next to him, Uno. And the taller woman with red lipstick, Megumi.

"Why are we recruiting a Psychic exactly?" Uno asked, her voice was soft but held a note of steel.

"Hiko's orders." Kenshin replied.

Uno's eyes narrowed but she didn't say anything.

"And we're just supposed to let her walk around unrestricted?" Iizuka asked.

Kaoru glared at them and fought the urge to give them all the mental equivalent of a punch.

Stop talking like she wasn't in the room dammit.

She blinked at Kenshin suddenly spun toward her and she found her wrist in his grasp.

"What the fuck are you doing?" She snapped and bit back a curse as pain suddenly flared in her arm and something that was most definitely not a handcuff latched around her arm.

"What the hell is this?" She held up her bracelet eyes narrowing at the numbers scrawled across it and the blinking red light.

"Personalized bomb."

"Personalized…" Kaoru's eyes widened. "You just attached a fucking bomb to me?"

"It might dissuade you from acting foolish." His eyes narrowed. "And if you think about killing me to free yourself. It's keyed to me. If I die you die."

Oh fuck.

Wonderful.

"I hate you," she snarled.

His face was expressionless. "As long as you do what you're supposed to I don't care."

Kaoru swung before thinking and he caught her punch, twisting her arm and dodging her knee. Before she could think to react further she found herself face down on the floor with his knee in the small of her back and her arm twisted tightly behind her.

Kaoru felt tears burn her eyes and choked back a scream of rage.

"Let me up!"

"You promise to behave?" He asked.

"I'm not a child! Let me the fuck up!"

He was off her and she got to her feet, trembling from suppressing the urge to hit him either mentally or physically.

It was too much.

Too much.

Losing Dove and Ricky and Leiko…

Being forced into this… whatever you wanted to call it….

She was a tool now.

Nothing more.

And everything less

For a split second the thought of just ending it all and taking Kenshin down with her crossed her mind.

She flung it away.

She had to find out who killed her family.

Then…

Maybe then…

"Megumi show Kaoru to her rooms," Kenshin's voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Is it a padded cell?" Kaoru asked sarcastically.

Kenshin's eyes narrowed but he didn't say anything.

Megumi gestured for her to follow but unlike Kenshin kept her right next to her and walked a step behind her. Kaoru ignored the way that Megumi's hand hung near her hip close enough to grab a not-so-concealed weapon.

They didn't trust her.

That was fine.

She didn't trust any of them.

Especially Kenshin.

What was the count up to last? She wondered. In the high one hundred forties if she remembered correctly.

One hundred and forty Psychic kills.

All dying at his hand.

It made her feel sick.

If she killed him it might put her back into the good graces of the Psychics. They might overlook her aiding the police if she brought them his head on a platter.

Right now Kaoru didn't want to think about it.

The only blood she wanted on her hands right now was the person that had killed her family.

Though Kenshin was pissing her off and the thought was tempting.

"We're here," Megumi murmured.

Kaoru blinked as Megumi pushed the door open and lead her inside, switching on the light.

This was most definitely not a padded cell.

The room was large, as large as two of the rooms in her old apartment. The bed was king-sized and looked so big that she felt she could get lost in it. There was a dresser and vanity table off in the corner. A small bookshelf packed with books.

Another door led off into a bathroom and Kaoru felt her throat tighten at the thought.

Her own bathroom.

"This is your room," Megumi said stepping away from her and heading back out the door.

Kaoru blinked and wondered what to say. 'Thank you' perhaps?

Megumi closed the door before she could say anything and she heard something click into place.

A lock.

It figured.

I just wouldn't do to have the Psychic running around killing people in their sleep now would it?

She headed to the bathroom where she nearly swooned at the sight. A large shower, bottles (she counted eight and shook her head trying to comprehend it – who needed eight bottles of shampoo and conditioner)?

There was a stack of large white fluffy towels and every other toiletry you could think of.

Kaoru didn't see a razor and it made sense.

What good was a Psychic who slit her wrists?

The entire thing had an air about it that spoke of planning and plotting. Hiko showing up and informing her that she was to now work for him and the Police had to be more than a coincidence. The day her family dies in a fire and she's alone – she ends up being recruited as a Tool for the police.

Something was going on here and she didn't like it one bit.

She pushed the thoughts away for later examination and stepped into the bathroom, turning on the shower.

The water was hot and mist filled the room.

A hot shower, a real honest to god hot shower…

It was almost worth having a bomb attached to her arm.

The shampoo smelled of jasmine. This was expensive stuff – not the usual generic perfume-less crap that could be found on the streets.

She lingered as long as she could, the water continued to stay hot and not turn to ice as it would have in the apartment she had shared with Ricky, Leiko and Dove.

Sighing, she reluctantly stepped out of it and wrapped herself in the towels.

She braided her hair and found clothes in the drawers. She ignored them and put on the clothes she had been wearing. An act of defiance if you would.

There was a knock on the door in warning and then the door opened and Uno poked her head in.

"It's dinnertime."

Kaoru's stomach rumbled at her words and she glared.

Traitor.

She followed Uno down the hallway to a large kitchen

The other members of the squad were seated around a table, tucking into dinner. There was a large basket of rolls, lasagna, and salad.

As soon as they noticed her the temperature in the room dropped about ten degrees.

Kaoru grit her teeth.

Pointedly ignoring all of them and keeping her shields on tight she slid into an empty seat next to – she noted with disgust – Iizuka.

She poured herself a glass of milk and loaded her plate with lasagna and salad and grabbed a roll and buttered it (real butter!). It was still hot from the oven and all but melted in her mouth.

Points to whoever had cooked it.

"Enjoying the food?" Iizuka asked.

Kaoru shrugged noncommittally.

"Kenshin cooked it."

Kaoru choked.

"It's not poisoned," Kenshin said.

Kaoru shot a glare at him. "Why does that surprise me?"

Kenshin merely glared back at her.

Kaoru sighed and dropped her gaze to the plate, pushing the food around with her fork, the facts that she was hungry and it tasted good warring with the knowledge that Kenshin had cooked it.

Dammit.

Hunger won.

Everyone was silent the mood tense. Kaoru had the feeling that if she wasn't here they would all be talking. But the fact that she was a Psychic and a new-comer and no one trusted her kept them silent except for a few murmured words for food to be passed.

Sighing, she pushed the chair back and got up.

Everyone's eyes immediately flickered toward her and she tensed.

"I'm going to bed."

She whirled and stalked out of the kitchen and back to her… room (Kaoru wanted to call it a cell but it was far too nice to be a cell) and slammed the door behind her.

She threw herself onto the bed and bit down hard on the pillow to muffle her scream of frustration. Tears burned her eyes and she closed them tightly, feeling the tears slip from the corners and down her face, soaking into the pillow.

She cried herself to sleep.

000

There was one distinct disadvantage with living with a group of non-Psychics.

They had no natural shields to speak of and it was too damned easy to slip into their minds without meaning to.

Iizuka's sent her running in disgust.

For fuck's sake were all the police a bunch of perverts?

He reminded her way too damn much of the pedophile cop she had killed to avenge Dove.

She only wished she could deal him the same fate without Kenshin killing her.

She then found herself darting through the mindscapes of Megumi, Uno and Takasugi. Which were much better and less twisted than Iizuka's. Some one was seriously teetering close to the edge and a feather puff could send him over.

If she did kill him she could tell Kenshin it had been pre-emptive measures.

He might actually buy it.

Which was when she stumbled into his mindscape.

She flinched and tensed half-expecting to be wading through a bunch of dead hacked-apart Psychics.

Instead she found herself standing on a corner.

'Oh god don't tell me he was an ex-child prostitute!' She thought a bit hysterically.

Instead she found herself coming face to face with a much younger violet-eyed (huh?) Kenshin.

She was struck suddenly by his resemblance to Dove.

Not physically but his eyes. He held the same bitter-yet-struggling-to-hold-onto-innocence look that Dove had, had.

Kaoru felt a lump grow in her throat.

'I've got to leave before he actually notices it's me and I'm not some dream-figment.' She turned to leave but froze when she felt a small hand latch onto her wrist.

"Sakura…" His voice was soft.

Kaoru blinked, who was Sakura?

He tugged insistently at her arm. "It's late we have to be getting back!"

"Uh…" Kaoru blinked several more times. "Sure…"

He led her through the streets, thankfully knowing his way. Kaoru was pretty sure if he had depended on her to lead him he would have known something was up. He had blended together whoever this 'Sakura' person was and Kaoru in his mind and Kaoru only hoped that when he did wake up it would be Sakura he was remembering, and not her.

They finally came to a stop in front of a two-story house. The glass windows were broken, the points razor-sharp and teeth-like.

Kaoru felt her stomach clench as a feeling of unease rippled through her.

Kenshin let go of her hand and darted inside.

"No don't!" She cried – running after him.

Something shattered and a scream ripped through the air.

She nearly barreled into him. He had stopped just inside of the door-way, frozen.

A woman lay dead on the floor, her neck twisted at an impossible angle.

Another was floating a foot off the floor her limbs limp and hanging brokenly.

Kaoru then noticed the telekinetics standing just behind them, their eyes bright with bloodlust.

"Kasumi…" Kenshin said brokenly, taking a step toward the woman who lay dead on the floor. "Akane…"

"Get out of here!" Kaoru cried, throwing herself in front of him just as she felt the telekinetic grab her and fling her against the wall.

Her head hit it had, darkness dancing across her vision. She slumped to the floor, feeling them twist her limbs like a rag doll. She couldn't fight back. This was a memory. She was reliving what had happened to Sakura.

Kenshin stepped toward her and then turned and fled. The last thing she saw as he ran was his head turned back watching her, his eyes going pale and turning a hard brittle gold.

Then her neck was snapped and she was flung out of the dream.

000

Kaoru jolted upright in the bed, phantom pain still racing through her neck. It faded quickly and she sighed, rubbing at the tense muscles.

Fuck that had hurt.

So that was what had happened to Kenshin, she mused.

No wonder he hated Psychics so much. It had probably been a good thing that she was a telepath and not a telekinetic… if he was treating her bad now, she didn't want to know how he would have treated her had she had the same powers as those that had killed the women.

There was a knock on the door and Kaoru's head jerked up as Megumi appeared.

"Breakfast is made."

"Who cooked it?" Kaoru asked. If Kenshin remembered that it had been her in the dream she really would find poison in her food.

"Iizuka."

Eww… maybe eating Kenshin's food would be better. At least it wasn't handled by a pervert.

"Coming." Kaoru replied, getting out of the bed.

She pulled her hair tie from her hair and regathered it back into a ponytail.

Megumi had disappeared back to the kitchen.

Yay at least she wasn't being chaperoned for the moment.

There was the soft sound of footfalls behind her and Kaoru turned just as she found herself slammed hard against the wall, her head knocking sharply against it and making the phantom pain return with a vengeance.

Blinking several times she found Kenshin staring down at her his eyes blazing and a snarl on his face.

Oh shit he had realized it was her in the dream.

Damn.

"Stay the fuck out of my head."

"I didn't want to be in your head in the first place!" Kaoru snapped back.

Kaoru saw his fingers twitch and she was quite certain that if he had a gun on him he would have it used it to blow her head off.

"Learn how to fucking shield and I won't end up inside of your bloody mind." Kaoru growled. "How the hell you and your damned team have lasted this long without being possessed by an eviler-than-me-telepath is a mystery! You have no defenses whatsoever!" She sent a bolt of pain at him that proved her point and had him stumbling back away from her.

The look in his eyes was murderous and Kaoru raised her eyes to his, matching him.

She slipped into his mind and grabbed a few choice memories and flung them at him.

She gave his curses points for creativity.

"See." She told him. "I can pull out your worst memories, worst thoughts and feelings. I can make you feel pain and use it against you." Her eyes narrowed. "You're just lucky I'm nice and don't get my kicks by making people hurt."

Unlike some people she could name…

"So?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Teach me," his voice was so low she barely caught it.

"Ask nicely," she snapped.

The sound of him gritting his teeth was audible. His fingers were twitching again.

"Will… you… teach… me…" He looked like he was swallowing glass and she suppressed a giggle.

Some sadistic part of her was finding this amusing.

"After breakfast," she said primly. "And a shower."

She whirled and walked away leaving him cursing after her.

'Don't even try to bully me.' She told him. 'Unless you want me to make you sing Yankee-doodle and tap-dance down the street.'

Hmm… that was an especially good one that he used… she noted and kept the curse in mind for whoever pissed her off next.

000

Breakfast proved to be an interesting affair.

Kenshin never said a word. Kaoru ate slowly well aware of the impatience rolling off him in nearly tangible waves.

The others were giving him odd looks, evidentially able to sense it too and Kaoru kept her face neutral and took her time eating.

Iizuka was being especially vulgar this morning and she had to restrain herself from blasting his brains out when he mused over her cup size and how she'd look naked and tied up.

His fingers touched her wrist a bit too long for her liking when he passed her the scrambled eggs and she had to restrain herself from flinging the bowl in his face.

The thought that had accompanied that particular action of his had made her gag and throw up six-foot thick shields to keep him out.

Oh she was never going to be as happy as when he knew how to shield and keep his thoughts to himself.

Of course he'd probably be an asshole and conveniently forget to.

'Filthy pervert,' she hissed to herself. 'Can I PLEASE kill him?'

The other's minds were quieter and she didn't catch many thoughts about her, she ignored them and concentrated on eating.

After finishing she got up and headed back to her room for a shower, very aware of Kenshin's eyes on her back.

000

Kaoru lingered in the shower no longer than she had to.

Kenshin would not be happy to be kept waiting and she didn't want to have to work with him being more pissed off than he already was at her.

He was waiting when she appeared.

"You have clothes," he said, noting that she was wearing the same clothes as before.

"Not wearing them," she replied.

"Why?"

"Sentimental value," she snapped.

He let it drop.

"Anyplace quiet and secluded?" Kaoru asked, hating the way it came out.

Kenshin raised an eyebrow.

"It's easier to be someplace with not a lot of people, less thoughts and static." She explained.

"Follow me then."

As it turned out the second story of the house was split into a gym and a dojo.

Kaoru eyed the swords lined up neatly on the wall appreciatively as she and Kenshin settled down on the mats.

"Okay…" she sighed, pondering how to begin. She lowered her shields so that she could have access to his mind.

"Picture a wall or some sort of barrier." She told him.

She was pleased when she caught an image of a barbed wire fence in his mind. He held it for a second and then it faded away.

Not bad for a first-try, she admitted grudgingly.

"Something more solid. With less holes."

A stone-castle wall appeared, he holded it for longer this time before it broke in his mind.

"It's going to have become like breathing," Kaoru told him. "It needs to be up constantly except when you choose to drop it."

Kenshin's eyes narrowed at her and a bead of sweat rolled down his temple.

Building shields were harder than they sounded. As physically hard as it would be to build one, so it was mentally. He hadn't passed out yet from the effort but Kaoru gave him time.

"Good," she praised his next effort as he managed to hold it for a full minute before it broke.

It would just figure he would be a good student, she thought in annoyance.

"Okay… you've got the hang of building one all you need to do is work on sustaining them. Now let's work on your defenses." She reached and tapped the wall gently and it shattered like glass underneath her touch.

He cursed softly and she chewed on her lip.

"I've got an idea…" She said.

"Why do I have the feeling I'm not going to like it?"

"I… can show you what it's supposed to be like…" Kaoru said softly. "But I'm going to need to be in your mind to do it."

Kenshin glared at her, his jaw muscle jumping.

"Or you can spend the next six months at this." Kaoru said.

"Fine," he bit off.

Kaoru let herself in, gingerly – just barely skimming the surface of his consciousness and not exploring.

'Like this,' she explained – throwing up her own shield. A mass of tangled vines, thorns, and poisonous flowers. She felt him reach out and touch them and they snapped at him, flinging him back.

'Construct your shield again,' she told him.

The wall went up and she touched it, smoothing out the chinks in the mortar and adding thickness to the stone. It solidified under her touch and she stepped back.

'Drop it and put it up again.' She said.

The wall disappeared and then reappeared a second later.

Kaoru brushed it gently and felt it repel her, sending her skidding back.

'Good,' she grinned. 'Now let me get out of here and attempt that from the outside.'

She pulled out and then tried again.

The blast she got had her flung back into her own mind so fast it nearly gave her whiplash.

Dammit. Look under the definition of quick learner and there would be Kenshin's picture.

"Good," she told him, pushing back her sweaty bangs, and saw his eyes flicker open. "That'll be it for the day."

He was looking pale and she supposed she wasn't much better.

"We need sugar," she told him.

His eyebrow quirked, "sugar?"

"It's like mental caffeine," she shrugged. "Anytime there's a lot of candy being stolen you can pretty much be sure there's a bunch of Psychics in the vicinity."

Kenshin snorted.

There was a knock at the door and Iizuka poked his head inside. In one hand he was holding a black envelope and she saw Kenshin tense.

"New mission," he said.

His thought about the other ways she could get hot and sweaty had her flinging shields up so fast she almost missed his words.

"Mission?" She asked softly.

Kenshin nodded getting to his feet and walking over to the rack of swords and selecting two.

"Get ready." He told her.

Kaoru felt her stomach clench.

A psychic was going to die today. She didn't need to be a pre-cog to see that.


	3. Chapter 3

At any other time, Koru would have been impressed by the quickness and efficiency in which they got ready. In moments everyone had changed from regular clothes to the red uniform of the police, individual weapons were grabbed and hidden in way that would make any pickpocket itchy in an attempt to try and steal.

"What about her?" Takasugi asked, jerking his head toward Kaoru. "Does she get a weapon?"

"She already is a weapon," Iizuka muttered and Kaoru glared at him.

"Uno give her a knife," Kenshin said.

"Do you know how to use a knife?" Uno asked.

Did she know how to use a knife…Kaoru nearly shook her head... Does a kid know how to eat candy?

"Yes," she replied.

Uno pulled a knife a tossed it to her. Kaoru caught it easily and vanished in it a way that had Uno's eyebrows raising appreciatively.

"Let's go."

"What are we taking?" Megumi asked.

"The cars." Kenshin answered.

"No motorcycles?" Takasugi asked.

Kaoru's interest perked at the mention of motorcycles.

"No," Kenshin said again.

Takasugi rolled his eyes and they all followed him to the garage where Kaoru felt her fingers start to twitch with the suppressed urge to not go up to the many shiny black vehicles and stroke them.

"You, Megumi and I will take one car," Kenshin informed her. "Takasugi, Iizuka and Uno, the other."

"I'm driving!" Uno said, even as Kaoru thought in relief she wouldn't have been subjected to Iizuka any more than she had to.

They split up into their cars and the garage door opened, Kenshin driving in the lead with Uno driving just behind him.

Kaoru curled up in the backseat and closed her eyes. Her stomach felt sour and there was a rotten taste in her mouth.

The night was not going to go well.

How long they drove or where they were going exactly, Kaoru did not know. The back windows were tinted and everything outside of them was a dark blur.

Finally the car pulled to a stop and Kaoru and Megumi got out.

They had arrived in an apartment complex that could only be said to be in one of the worst parts of town.

Even though she had grown up in similar areas Kaoru felt herself tense. This was not a good place. This was most definitely not a happy place.

They fell into line behind Kenshin, with Megumi at Kaoru's back, Uno before her.

Kenshin opened the door soundlessly and they fanned into the hallway after him, taking the steps upward.

He seemed to know where he was going and Kaoru wondered what exactly it had said in the black envelope that Iizuka had given him.

She got her answer when he stopped before a door marked twenty four. Still silent, Kenshin pulled a knife and slipped it between the crack of the door, unlocking it.

The door swung open and then suddenly Kenshin was being flung back.

He twisted in midair to land on his feet in a manner that was almost catlike.

A telekinetic then.

No this would not be a good night.

Iizuka, the idiot that he was, began firing off shot and Kaoru watched close to amusement as the bullets came to a stop a good six inches before the telekinetic – a young boy whose three day growth of stubble and ratty clothes made appear older – and then dropped with a clatter to the floor.

"Subdue him," Kenshin said and Kaoru blinked when she realized he was talking to her.

So this was why they wanted her.

A Psychic to fight Psychics.

The other option was letting Kenshin get at him…

No thank you, Kaoru did not want to have to watch him add another kill to his already long list.

She closed her eyes and murmured a soft apology.

Then she stepped forward, power leaking through her brain and flooding her body.

She skidded back several inches when the telekinetic tried to blow her back and shook her head at the surprised expression on his face.

'I'm more powerful than you,' she informed him. 'You can't do the same to me as you can to the others.'

His eyes widened. 'You're a Psychic also! …You fucking traitorous bitch!'

Kaoru snarled and hit him with the mental equivalent of a sledgehammer for that comment.

He swayed and dropped to one knee, his eyes positively murderous.

'Be good and I won't be tempted to make you into a vegetable,' she took a step toward him with every word. She was acutely aware of the others at her back, edging her.

'Why are you working with them?' He hissed.

'Because I have to,' Kaoru replied.

His face twisted and that was the only warning Kaoru got before she felt his power tightened into a single point and fling itself at her.

Phantom hands wrapped around her neck and squeezed tightly.

Kaoru made a choking noise as she attempted to breathe and found she could not. Dimly she felt herself fall to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

'Stop it!' She snarled at him.

'No,' he replied in a voice that was far too calm for her liking. 'I'm taking you down with me.'

Kaoru could feel her power sliding just under her skull, turning dark and angry as it demanded that she strike back at the one who was hurting her. She did her best to rein it in and not give into the intent it was clamoring for.

'Stop it!' She cried again. 'I won't let them kill you!'

'You're just a fucking tool!' He threw her own thoughts back at her. 'The Police's new lapdog bitch!'

Her power twisted and spiraled at that, breaking through the chains she attempted to wrap around and restrain it with.

It made his death a quick one.

Quicker than his would have been.

He convulsed once, eyes widening and then turning vacant, a trail of blood running down his nose.

Kaoru felt the hands that were choking her disappear and she sucked in a deep breath.

Realization of what she just did hit her and she retched.

A hand touched her shoulder and she pulled away.

"Don't fucking touch me!" Her voice cracked. Her power writhed within her asking if it still needed to be used and wanting to be.

No! She told it viciously and caged it.

No more deaths tonight!

No more blood on my hands!

She somehow got to her feet and walked over to where the dead telekinetic lay.

"I'm sorry," she murmured softly, dropping to her knees beside him. She closed her eyes in an attempt to stop the tears that were running down her face. Carefully she closed his open sightless eyes, his still-warm flesh a counterpoint to the fact that he was dead.

She had killed him.

She had killed a Psychic.

She had killed one of her own.

She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths as she attempted to calm down.

Getting to her feet, she faced the Squad who were looking back her with their faces expressionless.

'Now I'm one of you,' the thought made her sick.

And she saw the looks in their eyes change and didn't need to read their thoughts to know what they were thinking.

A Psychic that kills her own must not be that bad.

"Takasugi collected the body," Kenshin said.

"His name was Youji," Kaoru snapped.

Kenshin's eyes raised to hers briefly.

"Don't…" Kaoru blocked Takasugi as he stepped toward the dead telekinetic. "I'll take him myself."

Takasugi's eyebrows rose and he looked over at Kenshin who inclined his head.

'Why did the dead always seem so light?' Kaoru thought as she picked up Youji. He should have been heavier… she almost wanted him to be heavier in her arms…

She maneuvered carefully down the steps. The others followed her and she slammed her shields into place. She didn't want to know their thoughts.

"Open the door," Kaoru said once they reached the cars. "We are not putting him in the trunk."

Kenshin's face was unreadable but he nodded shortly.

Megumi slipped into the passenger side front door.

Kaoru placed Youji carefully in the car and sat down, pulling his head into her lap.

"I'm sorry," she murmured quietly and let herself pull inward, slipping into the shadows of her mind and withdrawing from everyone.

All too soon they arrived back at the house.

Kenshin and Megumi both got out, leaving her alone.

Several minutes later the door opened.

Kaoru looked up to find Kenshin staring at her.

"What will you do with him?" She asked softly.

"We have a storage container. They will take… him tomorrow."

Kaoru closed her eyes.

Storage.

Like a piece of meat.

Was that what they all thought Psychics were?

She didn't want to search them to know.

She didn't think she could stomach it.

Carefully she set Youji back down in the seat and slipped out of the car, avoiding contact with Kenshin.

"Where are you going?" Kenshin asked.

"Back to my cell."

000

Kaoru curled under the spray, her eyes tightly shut.

How long had she been in here?

She didn't know.

The water was still extremely hot.

The extravagance of it made her want to hit something.

Where she had lived before hot water occurred once in a blue moon or unless you wanted to boil massive amounts of water for a bath. Which was usually cold by the time you got enough water filled or the time it took made you give up.

And here she was under the water for at least a good hour and the water was still hot.

Her limbs protested as she got to her feet and she reached over and turned the knob, shutting it off.

She wrapped towels around her hair and body and got out of the bathroom.

Her clothes were lying where she had flung them. She looked at them and shuddered. You couldn't see the blood, but to her they were covered.

Gritting her teeth she went to the dresser and pulled out a t-shirt and a pair of pants.

Black sounded like a nice color right about now. She grabbed the clothes and tossed them on and braided her hair.

A few minutes later, she was startled by a knock on the door

Before she could tell them to fuck off the door opened and Uno stepped inside. She was holding a mug of something in her hand that smelled really good whatever the hell it was.

Kaoru glared at her, "get out."

"No," Uno replied.

"Unless you want to have a migraine for the next couple of days get the hell out." Kaoru snarled.

She blinked as Uno suddenly sat down next to her and thrust the cup at her. "Drink."

Kaoru eyed the drink. It did smell good whatever the hell it was…

Gingerly she took the mug and took a sip. The taste of chocolate flooded her mouth followed by something bitter that hit her stomach and spread fire through her. She gasped and choked.

"What the hell!" She wheezed.

"Takasugi stole it from Hiko," a grin tugged at Uno's lips. "You were looking a little pale."

"And so you gave me… I don't even want to know what it is…" Kaoru blinked at her in disbelief.

"Yep," Uno grinned. "You've got some color back in your face."

Kaoru contemplated pouring it over her head but decided against it. She took a tentative sip and it didn't kick as much going down as it did before. Warmth started to seep through her and she set the mug down on the floor.

As much fun as it would be, Kaoru didn't want to be drunk right now.

Kaoru was a vicious drunk.

And if she got drunk she might give into some not-so-pleasant urges – like killing Kenshin and Iizuka, what order exactly she didn't know. Whoever got in her way first…

"Was this your first kill?" Uno asked softly.

"No," Kaoru replied shortly.

"Oh," Uno blinked slowly. "Was it your…"

"Yes."

Uno nodded silently.

"If you say anything like 'good job' or 'congrats' you will be leaving this room in a body bag," Kaoru snarled.

"Wasn't going to," Uno protested.

Kaoru stopped glaring at her. "Then what were you going to say?"

"We're playing hangman," Uno told her.

Kaoru blinked, "hang…man…what the hell is that?"

"Tradition," Uno shrugged.

"You play hangman after every mission?" Kaoru said in disbelief.

"Yep," Uno grinned. "Wondered if you wanted to come and join the girl's team."

"Why…?"

"Because you're a psychic and can pull the answers out of the boy's heads."

Kaoru stared at her.

This was a really interesting way of being asked for help.

"Please!" Uno begged. "We've lost five games already and if we lose one more it becomes strip-hangman."

"Strip…hangman…" Kaoru murmured faintly. "Did Iizuka come up with this game?" She shuddered.

Uno winced, "yes."

"And Kenshin allows it…?"

"He doesn't officially," Uno admitted.

"Oh?"

"He grabs a book sits in a corner and occasionally offers a letter."

"So he doesn't…?" She really did not want to end up blind.

"No."

"UNO!" There was a shout that sounded like Megumi.

"Dammit," Uno muttered.

"Lost?" Kaoru asked.

"Yes… please…?" She asked.

"Fine…" Kaoru sighed and let Uno pull her from the room.

I know this is going to end up being a bad idea….

"No." Takasugi said once he caught sight of Kaoru. "Absolutely not."

"You're just scared," Uno stuck her tongue out at him.

"It's cheating!" He protested.

"Scared!" She retorted.

"Am not!" He shot back.

"Maybe I should just go…" Kaoru moved to head back to her room but Uno grabbed her.

"No, no, no, no… you are not going ANYWHERE! We are not losing one single piece of clothing tonight." Her grin suddenly turned evil as she turned toward Takasugi, Iizuka and Kenshin. "Takasugi darling are you still wearing those pink rubber ducky boxers?"

Takasugi's face turned red and his eyes narrowed.

Iizuka snickered softly and even Kenshin snorted.

Megumi was watching all of this with a grin on her face that matched Uno's.

"This is war," Takasugi muttered.

"You know what they say… all's fair in love and war… Kaoru's in!" Uno dragged her over to the couch where the Megumi was sitting opposite from the boys. In the center was a small dry erase board and several colored markers.

"We go first since we lost the last round!" Uno declared.

With Kaoru on the team they started on a winning streak.

Megumi supplied the words.

First with codpiece then followed by palimpsest and then sable.

Kaoru had shields up against Iizuka and since Kenshin was experimenting with his shields (and doing a pretty darn good job she thought grudgingly) she pulled the answers from Takasugi's mind.

Takasugi was only in his pants (they'd allowed a belt to be a particle of clothing), Iizuka still had both his shirt and pants on (thank god, Kaoru thought privately) and Kenshin had begrudged enough to only take off his shoes and socks.

Despite herself Kaoru found she was having fun.

Leiko would have loved this game. Between coming up with obscure words or having guys stripping in front of her…

Oh yes she would have owned this game.

They won the next round with 'Defenestration' – Uno snickering gleefully the entire time.

Kaoru was so caught up in the game that she didn't notice the slight tremor starting in her hand that then proceeded to go numb.

Halfway through the next word, Kaoru felt her arm twitch and spasm violently.

"Shit!" She cursed and everyone's head snapped around to look at her.

"What's the matter?" Megumi asked, eyes narrowing as she noticed Kaoru's shaking hand – the tremors starting their way up her arm to her shoulder.

"I need Wunder," Kaoru cursed softly.

Their faces shuttered at her words.

Psychic.

Drug-addict.

Wunder-user.

"Part of the deal was that you would supply me Wunder," Kaoru said softly, her voice tense. "Unless you want me to just have a seizure right in front of you."

Kenshin's face twisted at her words and she met his glare with her own.

"…Or I could just leave and go get my own. Probably not a good idea, since it's without a doubt all over the streets I am working with you more or less and I could end up being given rat poison instead of the real thing. And something tells me you don't want a dead Psychic." A bitter note crept into her voice. "You need me for whatever the fuck reason that you do."

The tremors sped up and she cursed, her teeth snapping together with a loud click.

Kenshin's eyes were dark but even he could see the effects it was having on her.

"I have maybe twenty minutes before I go into a grand-mal seizure," Kaoru said conversationally. "They hurt like a bitch and I have no desire to experience another one."

Kenshin stood up and gestured for her to follow.

"Come," his voice was clipped.

The only thing keeping Kaoru from strangling him was that she had to concentrate on walking after him so that she wouldn't crumble and seize on the floor.

She followed him to a backroom which held (of all things) a rather large complicated safe.

The pain starting to spill into her brain and she cursed as her power started to twist in response to it. The shields she had so carefully erected started to splinter and shatter in her mind and the voices she'd been keeping out rose in pitch grating against her mind like nails on a chalkboard.

It hurt.

She whimpered softly eyes screwing shut without her realizing.

Something brushed against her hand she pried open her eyes to see Kenshin holding a tablet of Wunder in his hand.

His expression was akin to someone touching something slimy and foul.

Kaoru would have told him to go shove it up his ass if she didn't need it so badly.

She took it out of his hand and popped it into her mouth, swallowing automatically.

A tingling spread through her and she felt her gift rein itself in.

The pain faded.

In fact everything felt really good now.

Perfect actually.

She felt a little loopy smile spread across her face.

Kenshin looked disgusted.

Kaoru would have attempted to punch him any other time… she felt too good at the moment…

She giggled softly and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Sorry," laugh-giggle, "it's a side-effect," hee. "I get," giggle-giggle. "Kinda manic."

Kenshin's lip curled slightly, eyes narrowing

Kaoru sighed and attempted to rein in her power. It hummed contentedly under her skin like a cat. This was part of the addiction. Even though, when your levels of Wunder fell – you hurt, once you took it the hurt was replaced by euphoria.

It affected more than just her power. Kaoru could see better, hear better, move faster and felt stronger.

The color Kenshin's hair distracted her momentarily and she fought the urge go over and play with it.

He'd probably break her wrist if she attempted it.

Best not to.

She shook her head, dislodging some of the manic-cloud in her mind.

"Sorry," she gave him a strained smile.

He was actually kind of pretty in the dangerous, touch me-and-you-die-painfully, kinda way, Kaoru mused.

Oh yes she was _really_ high on Wunder to be thinking those kinds of thoughts.

At least he wasn't Iizuka if that was any consolation.

Though, she'd probably have snapped and killed Iizuka.

She took several deep breaths and felt the mania fade to a more manageable level.

Good, she was back in control now.

For the moment.

How long had it been since she'd had her last drop in levels of Wunder?

A week.

A knot formed in her stomach.

Only a week.

A quick jog back into her mind told her that her need to keep taking the Wunder had been speeding up over the past six months.

Two weeks.

A week.

Every three days.

And then…

Just like Leiko…

How long would Leiko have lasted before turning completely crazy had she not died?

A month?

Six months?

Three?

Something must have shown on her face because Kenshin's eyes narrowed.

"What is it?"

"…Nothing…" Kaoru shook her head. "It's nothing…."

That was a lie.

It was everything.

She whirled away leaving Kenshin staring after her. He snarled softly and followed her back to the common room.

'I need to think. To plot… To try to figure out how much time I have.'

The mania gave her a slight bounce in her step and she couldn't quite restrain the grin that stole across her face.

The other's thoughts snapped her out of it.

'High as a fucking kite.'

She whirled around to face Iizuka bristling.

The urge to rip into his mind and turn him into a vegetable was almost overpowering.

"Shut the fuck up," Kaoru hissed softly. "I need this."

Off to the side Takasugi snorted. "Just another druggie aren't you?"

Kaoru's eyes narrowed to slits and she spun toward him, hands fisting at her sides. "What the hell do you know about Psychics?" She demanded.

Takasugi blinked at her and the trail of his thoughts made her snarl.

"Exactly. Nothing. What do you do – see a Psychic and kill him and ask no questions?"

That was exactly what they did and it didn't surprise her.

"Do you want to know what the average age of a Psychic is?" Kaoru asked coldly. "Or what exactly Wunder does to us?"

Kenshin raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

"Eighteen," Kaoru bit off. "The youngest Psychic I've ever met was eight." Dove. "The oldest was twenty five. He died a week after I met him from Wunder-tainted madness." She gave a bitter laugh. "We aren't known for our long lives. Either our developing powers kill us when are young, you do, or the Wunder does."

"Wunder?" Megumi asked softly.

"Yes," Kaoru bit off. "We're forced to take it when our powers start developing or else they turn upon us and kill us. But by the time we can control our powers it's too late. We're addicted. And then the Wunder kills us. It destroys our sanity and makes us into raging zombies."

"So that's why the Berserkers we've had to kill have had unnatural amounts of Wunder in their bloodstream," Uno said softly.

"Can you wean yourself off it?" Megumi queried.

"I've never met anyone who has," Kaoru said tightly. Either the pain of withdrawal would force them back onto it – or they would die from the effects of trying to work it out of their system.

"So you blame Wunder for all of your problems?" Iizuka asked snidely.

Oh yes because of Wunder it made them what they were: drug addicts, prostitutes, thieves and murderers.

The very scum of society.

"Society hasn't given us much choice," Kaoru said softly.

Kenshin snorted and she turned on him eyes flashing.

"I'd rather be a Psychic and die one than some filthy cop," Kaoru snarled. She dug up the memory of Dove and flung it at all of them.

Dove with her throat slit lying in the alley floor.

The cop who had raped her and then left her for dead.

Dove afterward – smiling and cheerful.

Dove's screams as their home burned to the ground.

Megumi gasped softly and Uno flinched.

Kenshin's face was like stone, his golden eyes blazing.

Takasugi's face had lost some of its color.

Kaoru didn't look at Iizuka.

"At least we aren't monsters who rape and kill little children," Kaoru said softly.

She stormed away before the urge to kill one of them – starting with Iizuka or perhaps Kenshin – became too overpowering. There were tears in her eyes and she was snarling under her breath.

"Where are you going?" Kenshin's hand grabbed her wrist and she reacted even before thinking and Kenshin found himself flung against the wall.

"I'm leaving," Kaoru told him. "Don't worry, I will be back." Her voice turned bitter. "I just can't promise you that if I stay here you will all live to see tomorrow."

She nearly tore the door off its hinges and the sound of it slamming echoed through the house.

Kaoru took off in a dead run away from the compound.


	4. Chapter 4

Once out on the streets and away from the compound Kaoru finally felt herself start to relax. This was familiar ground.

Her territory.

Her home.

She jogged silently down the street eyes closed listening to the sound of her footsteps. The voices of the people near the street buzzed against her mind shields and she was half-tempted to lower them if only to have someone other than a police officer in her head.

That would be stupid.

Knowing how news flew and rumors spread, Kaoru was either being blamed for her family's deaths or already connected to the police in some way shape or form.

Kaoru had the sudden urge for something hot and containing caffeine – not made by either Iizuka or Kenshin.

She ducked into a nearby café and it was the simple matter of planting the idea in the head of the person sitting beside her and she found herself now sipping a freshly brewed (or as fresh as it was going to get in this part of town) cup of coffee.

Another mental suggestion got her a hard muffin that after a moment of chewing finally softened and was edible. Kaoru gave it points over her own cooking merely due to the fact that she hadn't broken any teeth in an attempt to eat it, as she would have with her own.

There was the slight familiar buzz at her shields and she half-turned to see Mikael enter the café.

His eyes widened as he saw her and he strode over to her.

"Kaoru darling there have been some very interesting rumors with your name on them going around."

"I can imagine," Kaoru took another sip of coffee before handing it to him. No she wasn't bribing him… not really. "Spill."

"Loudest one is that you killed your family," the look on her face made him grin. "Don't worry, I'm not stupid enough to fall for that one."

"Huh you have more brains than I gave you credit for," Kaoru muttered.

"Another one says that you're the police's new slut."

Kaoru winced. "True…just without the nasty S word."

"So you're working for the police?" Mikael asked in disbelief.

"Yes." Kaoru said shortly.

"Why?" His eyes were wide.

"They'll help me find who killed my family." Kaoru caught the last of his thoughts and turned red. "Hell no!"

Mikael grinned, "that's a relief."

Kaoru shuddered and rubbed at her temples. "There's a cop I'd like you to meet. His name is Iizuka. Pity neither of you are gay." She shuddered again.

Perverts Anonymous or something like that.

Mikael made a face, "no thank you."

Kaoru shuddered again. "There are times I really wish I could wash my mind out with soap – I'll settle for yours instead. Ugh. For your information I don't think anyone is that flexible."

Mikael grinned ruefully. "I haven't been laid in a while."

"I can tell," Kaoru twitched. "Must be your charming personality driving the ladies away."

"You offering?" Mikael batted his eyes at her.

"Do you want to spend the rest of your life trying to remember how to tie shoelaces?" Kaoru retorted.

"That's no," Mikael sighed.

"Hell no," Kaoru corrected him. "So any other fun stories going around?"

Mikael shrugged, "been pretty quiet or the most part."

"Aa," Kaoru resumed her attempts to masticate the muffin into something edible.

"So besides the helping find who killed your family – are you getting anything else out of this deal?" Mikael asked.

"A roof over my head, food, clothes, Wunder…" Kaoru shrugged.

"Always wondered what they did to the stuff they caught from us." Mikael mused.

"Their's is better than the shit you sell," Kaoru stuck her tongue out at him.

"You wound me," Mikael rolled his eyes. "Not too badly though. I'll be making a tidy sum tonight from your information."

Kaoru blinked at him, "huh?"

"There's a price on your head – or so the rumor – goes and anyone with concrete information gets a good chunk of cash."

"Money grubbing prick," Kaoru grumbled without venom.

"You love me," Mikael smiled.

"I'd love to hurt you." Kaoru replied. "Who's putting the money down on me?"

Mikael shrugged, "don't know. Like I said just rumors." A quick search of his mind proved him to be true.

Kaoru was wondering just how many rumors had been spawned since her disappearance.

She dropped the last of her muffin onto the plate with a loud thunk and pushed herself to her feet.

"Where you going?" Mikael asked.

"Back to the fun house," Kaoru rolled her eyes and touched the bomb on her arm. "Something tells me if I don't get home before midnight I will end up going boom in many squishy pieces."

Mikael tsked softly. "Who'd they hook you up with anyway?"

"Battousai."

"Shit!" Mikael yelped.

"Precisely." She patted his cheek. "Be a good boy and stay out of too much trouble won't ya?"

"Always," Mikael put an innocent look on his face and it probably would have worked with anybody else but her.

"Toodles darling." He waved after her as she left.

000

Voices pushed against her mindshields as approached the compound and Kaoru narrowed her eyes and attempted to count and gave up after eight new ones.

She was going to end up with a headache and wanting to get really, really drunk before the night was over.

Kaoru eyed the house and considered the odds of her walking in there with police crawling all over the place and the chances of her surviving.

Better not to.

She really had no clue how long it would be before Kenshin got mad and made her go explodey all over the place.

Gritting her teeth she opened the door and stepped inside.

She made it two steps before she found herself staring at the business end of a very large, very nasty looking gun.

Ok… how was she going to introduce herself?

"Hi! I'm Kaoru Squad 54's new pet psychic! Nice to meet ya!"

No that didn't sound like it would work.

No… what came out of her mouth was more along the lines of:

"Get that fucking thing out of my face before you end up with a migraine for the next two weeks."

Oh no Kaoru did NOT like having weapons pointed at her.

To her surprise the police guy – jeez he looked about twelve – laughed and pulled the gun away. He was shorter than her by half a head with sparkling brown eyes, hair in a long black ponytail and a grin that she would have found infectious had she not been pissed at the moment.

Now she found it really annoying.

At the back of her mind she tried to figure out who he was – Kaoru had heard about most of the big-gun police officers and it shouldn't be too hard to match him up with whatever description that had been given to him by the psychics.

"Kenshin your new psychic is feisty."

"I'm not _his_ psychic," Kaoru snarled.

Kenshin's glare could have killed. "Shut up Okita."

Okita.

Kaoru froze.

Okita… Squad three… Captained by…

Kaoru's eyes narrowed.

Hajime Saitou.

She drug up memories from other Psychics who had run in with him. The few that had managed to make it out alive. He wasn't second behind Kenshin with the number of kills for nothing.

She found him, leaning against the wall smoking a cigarette.

She made it three strides before a hand clamped down hard on her wrist and she spun around, glaring at Kenshin.

"What are you doing?" He hissed.

"Nothing – at the moment." Kaoru shrugged. "I was just heading over to knock a couple of teeth out of Saitou's mouth."

Kenshin's eyes narrowed and she glared at him.

A laugh startled her and she turned to see a taller police officer. The only one in the room not wearing the trademark red uniform aside from Kenshin's team, grinning at her.

"Kenshin let her."

"No," Kenshin snapped.

"I promise I won't kill him." Kaoru grumbled. "Just want to see him bleed a little."

The other police officer laughed again. "She hates Saitou. I like her. Can I have her on my team?"

"No!" Kaoru snarled and then realized what it sounded like. Still no – she was not going to be passed around from team to team like some kind of party favor.

"Who the hell are you anyway?" Kaoru demanded.

He gave her a lazy smile. "Sanosuke Sagara."

"Zanza," Kaoru's voice turned cold.

Were all the cities worst (best depending on your point of view) police gathered together in one room?

"So let her knock some teeth out of his head," Sanosuke grinned. "I'd love to see it."

Kaoru blinked. He'd _like_ to see her take a whack at one of his own?

She didn't know whether to like him or hate him.

"Please?" Kaoru asked, glaring over Kenshin's shoulder at the cop in question.

"C'mon Kenshin," Sanosuke smiled. "I'll give you twenty bucks for every blow she lands."

Kaoru's eyes narrowed, "and I'm not getting that money because….?"

"He's your commanding officer," Sanosuke replied easily.

Kaoru made a sound that was somewhere between a growl and a hiss, "he's my commanding _nothing_." She tore wrist out of Kenshin's grasp. "I'll beat up on the bastard for free."

Still bristling she stalked over to where he was.

He arched an eyebrow at her. "Can I help you?"

Kaoru's smile turned nasty. "Hello Wolf."

"Psychic," he returned eyes narrowing.

"So… do I have to ask your permission or can I just start punching you?"

"I don't fight Psychics."

"Of course not." Kaoru's smile turned evil. "You just kill them. Brutally." Her first punch flew before she'd even finished speaking.

She hissed as he blocked and then she found herself flung back. Twisting she landed on her feet and shifted so that the momentum carried her forward.

'Dammit! Will you let go of that fucking cigarette and fight me!' She snarled as he dodged her flurry of kicks and punches.

She reached out every so slightly and tapped into her power. Her speed increased and she smirked when Saitou finally flung the cigarette away.

Unfortunately he caught her next kick and twisted sending her spinning through the air.

At the edges of her vision she noticed that the other police had backed off forming a circle so that they could fight.

"Missy's not too bad," Sano commented to Kenshin.

"She has yet to land a single blow," Kenshin replied.

"Kenshin you're the only one who can consecutively score hits on that bastard." Sano grumbled.

Kenshin snorted.

Kaoru's lips were pulled back into a snarl and she was breathing hard. Saitou blast him didn't even look like he'd broken a sweat and was still smirking at her.

Kaoru _really_ wanted to knock that damned smirk off his face.

She growled and tapped into a little more of her power. Then blurring quickly she attacked again.

Speeding and twisting slightly she created an after-image of herself and then attacked from the opposite side.

Saitou blocked if just barely and once more she found herself flung across the room.

'I HATE being small and light!' Kaoru seethed.

She blinked as Saitou suddenly straightened from his crouch.

"We're not done!" She snarled.

"Yes we are," she hissed as he pulled a packet of cigarettes from his pocket and a lighter.

Kaoru fought off the urge to drop on him the mental equivalent of a falling piano.

She shimmered furiously at him.

"Another time Psychic." Saitou took a drag and Kaoru wished that she was a Pyrokinetic so she could make the damned thing blow up in his face.

The reminder that it was a Pyrokinetic who had gotten her in this situation by killing her family dampened it somewhat.

Still she glared at the cigarette wanting to see it burst into flames.

"Not bad Missy." Sanosuke's voice jerked out attention away from Saitou. "You actually put an up decent fight."

"Shut up." She grumbled.

Sano yelped at rubbed his head. "What was that for?"

"You're being an idiot and I didn't get to hit anything."

Sano winced. "So you hit me instead?"

"Yes." Kaoru eyed Kenshin.

"Just don't make him lose any more brain cells than he has." Kenshin muttered and walked away.

Kaoru blinked.

….Was that permission….?

Kaoru suddenly felt very, very tired.

Too much had happened today.

She slipped out of the room and walked up the stairs to her own.

A nice hot shower – stupid things were addictive – and then a good long sleep was in order.

'Anyone who wakes me up before noon is going to die,' she grumbled as she stomped up the stairs.

The water was still (annoyingly) hot she and sighed and showered quickly.

She froze as she stepped out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her body and hair.

'…They sure aren't recruiting the police for their brains nowadays are they?' She thought vaguely as she stared at the hulking muscle-bound idiot standing in front of her before her brain began to process the fact that he was in _her_ room and she was clad only in towels.

Gohei.

She blinked as she caught his name and then turned red at the train of his thoughts.

Eww! Eww! EWWWW!

A - Where all the Police officer a bunch of perverts and

B - Why did people go 'Psychic!' and immediately assume 'Slut!'

"Out." She said firmly pointing at the door in case he'd forgotten where he was. Given what she was estimating his IQ number at being it wasn't a bad thing to do.

A leering grin spread across her face and she shuddered.

"Get. Out. Of. My Room." Kaoru annunciated clearly. "Now."

He took a step toward her and she cursed as she took one away from him.

'Not scared of him. But if he touches me he is going to lose his hand and probably his arm… and then I am going to turn his brain to mush and watch it dribble out his ears…'

"Last chance idiot." Kaoru punctuated each word with a mental slap that didn't even have him blinking. "Leave now."

He moved faster than she would have given him credit for – Kaoru attempted to dodge and she found herself face to face with the bed – someplace she _really_ didn't want to end up on… in.

A large meaty hand grabbed her arm and he yanked.

She screamed as pain flared up her arm. She was tumbled on to the bed before she could react and found his mouth against hers, bruising.

Kaoru's shields shattered and she screamed again.

His memories flooded her and she shuddered sobbing.

Blackness… hate… the face of a dying psychic flashed before her eyes and she felt her stomach tightened and bile rose in her throat…

She attempted to gather her scattered thoughts together enough so that she could form a single point of power and turn his brain to dust.

She grasped at it the first attempt feeble, it slipping through her fingers.

Then she got a hold on it.

Making it into one sharp knife she flung it into his brain.

His mind shuddered against hers and then went still.

Empty.

Blank.

There was a brief moment of silence except for her gasping breaths….

… And then the door was wrenched open, banging loudly as it crashed against the wall.

A pair of blazing golden eyes met her gaze and she felt her stomach twist.

"Get… him off me…" All her strength seemed to have faded and she closed her eyes tightly trying to hold the tears back.

Vaguely she registered Sanosuke and Megumi in the room their voices thankfully quiet against her bruised and battered mind. Kaoru kept her eyes screwed shut, concentrating on breathing slow and evenly as Gohei was lifted off of her.

She caught an image of herself from Megumi's mind and flinched. Her hair was in disarray the towel having fallen she didn't remember when, the strands were clinging to her face and shoulders. Her towel had slipped down slightly and she while thankfully showing nothing - was still showing more skin than she would have liked.

The arm that Gohei had yanked on was turning ugly shades of bruises, finger marks evident. Tears were falling down her face and the corner of her lip was bleeding from where it had been cut against her teeth.

She felt herself beginning to shake and cursed silently. Mentally she began to pick up the pieces of her shields and patch them back into place.

"What happened?" Kenshin's voice. Low and furious.

He was shielding – Kaoru didn't want to know what he thought of her.

"Gohei…" Kaoru's voice cracked. She was shaking violently now – not from seizures but shock.

Megumi stepped toward her and she flinched.

"Sano go make something for Kaoru to drink." Megumi ordered, her voice had turned crisp and business-like. "But first help Kenshin get rid of Gohei." There was a dark note in her voice.

Kaoru didn't open her eyes until the door closed.

"Let me see your arm," Megumi murmured.

Kaoru winced and straightened her arm wincing as she did so.

Megumi hissed in sympathy and probed it gently. The girl's arms were like sticks. The towel was hiding most of her body but it was a good chance that she was severely undernourished. Probably anemic as well. The bruises encircled all of her arm and were turning nasty colors.

"I'll be right back." Megumi told her. "Just let me go get my kit."

Kaoru nodded soundlessly. "May I change?"

"Sure," Megumi said softly.

Kaoru had just pulled on a tank top and pair of sweatpants, her hair in a ponytail, when Megumi returned with her medicine kit Sano in tow.

Quietly Kaoru held her arm out to Megumi hissing slightly as she probed it with her fingers.

"Just bruised I think." Megumi muttered. She unscrewed a jar of salve and then bound it. "Try to use it too much, you may have had something wrenched. I think it's mainly muscle soreness though."

Kaoru sighed.

"You hurt anywhere else?" Megumi asked.

Kaoru shook her head and accepted the cup of tea from Sano, blowing at the steam and letting its heat seep into her chilled hands.

Kaoru cocked her head as she noticed that except for Sano and the rest of Kenshin's team the house was empty. "Where is everyone?"

"Kenshin cleared them," Sano told her.

"Oh," Kaoru took a sip of her tea.

"He's currently on the phone yelling at Kohya."

"Who?" Kaoru blinked.

"Gohei's superior," Sano grimaced.

Kaoru hissed. "Is he anything like him?"

"No," Sano sighed. "I have no idea how he even got his rank because the idiot's a wuss. He should be spending his career behind a desk like a good little mouse. No wonder Gohei was always out of control."

Kaoru dropped her eyes to her tea and concentrated intently on it.

Megumi handed her some painkillers. "Do you need a sleeping pill?"

Kaoru shook her head. "No thanks." She had enough drugs in her system.

"Go to sleep," Megumi advised. "I'll see you –"she looked out the window at the sky which was lightening. "-later today."

Kaoru tossed the pain killers back and followed with a gulp of tea.

Megumi nodded and got to her feet. "If you start hurting just call me."

Kaoru nodded. "Thank you."

Megumi nodded in return. "Come on rooster head." She grabbed Sano's arm and hauled him out of the room after her.

Kaoru sighed and finished off the last of her tea. Looking at her bed she flinched.

No way in hell was she sleeping there tonight.

Grabbing her pillow and the coverlet she spread it over the ground and then wrapped it around her and proceeded to go to sleep on the floor.

000

A few hours later Kaoru awoke. Her body seemed to have stiffened up while she had slept and her arm protested as she moved it. The bruising had faded and she spared a brief moment of thanks for Psychic-healing ability.

It had helped her out many times before this.

Getting up she tossed the pillow and coverlet back on the bed and took another shower. Damned hot water _was_ addictive and Kaoru couldn't remember a time when it had been so readily available. Plus the heat helped loosen the knots in her muscles. She grabbed some clothes from the drawer and closed the bathroom door after her.

She braided her hair and coiled it into a bun as she stepped out of the shower. Changing quickly into her clothes she then walked out of the bedroom and down the stairs. The scent of food cooking was heavy in the air and her stomach grumbled.

She found the entire team seated around the table eating breakfast.

There was an empty seat between Uno and Megumi and Kaoru sat down, grabbing a plate and began loading it with food.

"So I heard you got some action last night," Iizuka smirked.

Kaoru would have flung the piece of toast in her hand into his face had it not broken in half because of her suddenly tight grip on it. She snarled at him, clamping down on the urge to knock off sixty IQ points.

"Shut the fuck up." Sano hissed saving her from saying it.

Iizuka opened his mouth for another smart comment but Kenshin cut him off. "Iizuka if you're trying to cause any dissention leave the table. Now."

Kaoru's eyes widened in outrage at the trail end of Iizuka's thought - something involving her and a doorframe and she let out a thread of power and heard him yelp as his vision blurred and he walked into said doorframe.

Not nearly as satisfactory as turning him into a vegetable but it would do.

For now.

She picked up a fork and stabbed her bacon viciously.

Still simmering silently she concentrated on eating her food, hoping that it would drive away any homicidal thoughts involving a certain pervert who should have been drowned at birth.

"I'm going to be going now. Thanks for the food Kenshin." Sano stood up and Megumi with him.

"I'll see you to the door." Megumi murmured.

Uno finished her food and left saying something about practicing in the dojo.

And since according to Uno's thoughts, Takasugi was upstairs still-sleeping off a hangover – left Kaoru and Kenshin alone.

'Oh goody,' Kaoru grumbled and pointedly ignored him.

"How are you?" Kenshin asked.

Kaoru blinked at him. Was that concern. "I'm ok."

"Good," Kenshin's eyes narrowed. "Pick your trysts better next time. This isn't a brothel and I don't want any more police dying under my roof no matter the circumstances."

Nope not concern.

"You prick," Kaoru snarled. She dropped the fork in her hand before she gave into the urge to jump over the table and stab it into his heart.

If he even had one.

"Just because I'm a psychic doesn't mean I'm a slut!" She snarled.

Kenshin merely looked at her, his face expressionless.

Kaoru shoved the chair back ignoring the screech of wood against wood. She stood up so fast the chair toppled over and stomped out of the room, her entire body tight with rage.

Megumi blinked as she entered the kitchen just in time to see (and hear) Kaoru stomping up the stairs.

"What was that about?"

"Told her not to kill any more police here."

Megumi's eyes narrowed. "And what exactly did you say to her?"

"She should pick her trysts better." Kenshin blinked as Megumi's eyes suddenly narrowed.

"Have you seen her arm?"

"No," a baffled expression crossed his face. "She's wearing long sleeves."

"For a reason!" Megumi hissed. "Asshole nearly ripped her arm off and the bruising is extensive. Whatever the hell was going on up there it was not consensual. You didn't suggest…" She sucked in a breath and cursed. "Even if it was, I'd hope she would have better taste than Gohei of all people."

"She's a Psychic." Kenshin said it as if explained everything.

"She's also a girl. And she came very close to ending up a rape-victim last night." Megumi shuddered. "You haven't heard some of the rumors about Gohei have you?"

Kenshin shook his head.

"Let's just say he won't be mourned." Megumi said her expression bitter.

She suddenly turned toward him a smile that would have made any smart man run in the other direction on her face. "You're going to go up and there and apologize to her."

Kenshin blinked. "…Excuse me?"

"You heard me." Megumi said in a tone of voice that left no room for arguments.

Kenshin glared at her a muscle in his jaw jumping.

"Now." Megumi's eyes narrowed.

Kenshin made a soft hissing noise and got to his feet.

"Either you go apologize or I'm going to give her cooking duty for a month." Megumi warned.

"…Does she even know how to cook…?"

"Don't have a clue," Megumi said cheerfully. "Do you really want to find out?"

The sound of Kenshin grinding his teeth together was audible.

"Now." Megumi said. "Before I drag her out of her room and give her a lesson on grilling steak."

Kaoru near flame and sharp instruments….

Kenshin knew when he was defeated.

He whirled around and stomped up the stairs in a manner not unlike the one Kaoru had used.

Megumi did her best not to smirk at his retreating back. In a mission she'd do whatever he told her without even thinking about it. …But when they weren't on a mission? Oh it was such fun to pick on Dear Ken.

He needed to lighten up. Kenshin was so serious, he took everything personally.

'Won't kill you to say sorry.' She thought.

The room was dark when Kenshin entered. The blinds had been pulled down and everything had dissolved into blackness and shadow. Black-upon-black.

It took a moment for his eyes to adjust

"What do you want?" Kaoru's voice came from the direction of the floor and he blinked when he found her curled up in her covers several feet from the bed.

"Why are you on the floor?"

"Because it's comfy," she snapped.

"What's wrong with the bed?"

"Nothing." She replied.

"And you're not using it because…?"

He could feel her glare even though he couldn't see her. Growling softly he flipped on the light and heard her hiss softly as light flooded the room.

"Turn the lights off!" She snapped.

"No." He replied.

"I don't want them on!"

"Is there a reason for that?" He raised an eyebrow.

Kaoru's eyes narrowed and she snapped her mouth shut.

"What's the matter?" Kenshin asked.

"Three guesses and the first two don't count," Kaoru growled.

"Gohei."

"You're a smart one aren't you?" Kaoru seethed.

"What does he have to do with anything?" Kenshin asked.

"Everything." Kaoru closed her eyes. "He's still in my head."

Kenshin blinked.

Kaoru shuddered. "Do you know what he did?"

"There were rumors." Kenshin's voice was cautious.

"He didn't just kill the Psychics. He abused them… tortured them… He'd rape the women he got his hands on." Her face paled. "He enjoyed listening to them scream… The feeling of the bones in their necks breaking…" Her eyes suddenly snapped open the expression in them furious. "And you think we are the monsters."

Kenshin stayed silent and he thought that was probably the best course of action to take with her. Her body had tensed so tight it was fairly vibrating. Anger, loathing, disgust – the emotions flickered across her face. Everything she felt she broadcasted through looks and body language. He wondered if she was even aware she was doing it.

"I've killed. I'm not ashamed of it." Kaoru's voice dropped a hiss. "I've done it to defend myself or my family or to avenge the ones I loved. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. But I never ever enjoyed it. I did it because I have to." She snorted. "And the citizens of the city are told that we are the bad guys and you are the good ones."

Kenshin's face was expressionless but his eyes had turned a molten gold.

"How exactly do you bastards work anyway?" Kaoru growled. "Do you all walk around with a bunch of blinders on?"

"Squads are autonomous and only report to Hiko." Kenshin's voice was clipped.

"And of course all the bad things that are happened are buried. No one wants to know that the city's great heroes are a bunch of filthy bastards." Kaoru's lip curled.

"We do indeed do some good," Kenshin interjected.

"Oh really?" Kaoru asked, eyes narrowing. "Like what?"

"Putting down the Berserkers that threaten innocents," Kenshin's voice was grim.

"I'm not saying that all Psychics are innocent and good either." Kaoru murmured. "But we're not evil. The same, not all you Police are a bunch of lily-white saints that you seem to think you are." She sighed and rubbed at her eyes.

Kenshin didn't reply for a moment, eyes glittering and dark. Kaoru's eyes narrowed as he spun around silently and stalked toward the door, his back ramrod straight and a tight controlled tension in his body.

Suddenly he paused, just before the doorframe. "Sorry."

He said it so quietly she barely heard it.

His hand passed over the light as he left and the room was once more in darkness.

"Sure you are." Kaoru grumbled and closed her eyes. At least in the dark the color of blood had dulled and the even the screams she heard in her mind seemed muffled. She sank into an uneasy sleep of death and terror and pain.

000

AN:

Why did Kaoru have so much trouble with Gohei? Well her powers went wonky for a reason. Psychics don't know why but whenever they are intimate/care about someone a lot) - in Gohei's case it was because he was forcing himself on her – they're powers don't seem to work correctly/take a lot of effort to make them work correctly.

The main theory is that when they are intimate with someone it keeps them from hurting themselves/their partner. Nothing like a Pyrokinetic shooting off flames in the middle of sex. Hehe.


	5. Chapter 5

Okay darlings.

Let me remind you that this is NOT a happy cheerful fic. It's gonna get worse and it's gonna get nasty (nastier?). It's rated M for a reason not because I think it's a cool letter. Keep that mind.

The Monsters under the bed are going to come out and want to play.

Just an advance warning.

-Shiin

0000

Kaoru woke up later, feeling as if she hadn't slept as all. Her body ached faintly as she got her feet but not as much as it could have been. She had wrapped herself up tightly and the floor wasn't as hard as some of the floors she'd slept on.

A glance out the window showed that the sun was high and shining through the dome that covered the city. Kaoru guessed it was mid-afternoon. She unwrapped the blankets and got to her feet.

Throwing them on the bed with a glare at that certain piece of furniture she walked out of her room and downstairs.

Sano had come back, she saw. He was seated at the table beside Megumi who were both drinking coffee.

"Oh good you're up." Megumi said as she walked into the kitchen.

"Yeah," Kaoru nodded at them and opened the fridge, grabbing a carton of milk and some bread and cheese to make a sandwich.

"We're going shopping." Megumi informed her.

"Oh have fun," Kaoru replied as she slid a slice of cheese between two pieces of bread and took a bite.

"You're coming with us."

Kaoru choked.

"Shopping?" She wheezed. "Shopping….?"

"Yes," Megumi's eyes glittered. "You do know what shopping is correct?"

"Buying things?" Kaoru offered. With money… as in not stealing them… She couldn't remember the last time she'd bought anything other than Wunder.

"Yep," Megumi nodded. "You're getting a new wardrobe."

"Clothes?" Kaoru squeaked.

Sano snickered at the expression on her face. "Have fun."

Megumi cocked her head at him, "you're coming too Rooster-brain."

Sano blinked at her. "Why?"

"You can put those muscles of yours to good use for once and carry the bags." Megumi told him.

This time both Sano and Kaoru blinked at her.

"Bags?" Kaoru asked weakly.

"Of course." Megumi snorted.

"How much stuff are we getting?" Kaoru asked warily.

"Well you need clothes – can't have you running around looking like a ragamuffin now can we?" Kaoru bristled slightly. "Furniture and other things for your room… it looks like a jail cell."

"That's because it is a jail cell," Kaoru muttered under her breath.

"Go get your shoes," Megumi told her.

Kaoru glared but did as she was told.

It had her feeling like a five year old.

She then followed Megumi and out of the compound and into one of the black cars that the police used.

"It's just us right?" Sano asked as he slid into the driver's seat.

Kaoru arched an eyebrow at him as she sat down in the passenger seat behind Sano and Megumi.

"Yes, Sano it is just us." Megumi rolled her eyes. "The weasel-girl will not be there."

"Shh!" Sano hissed eyes darting around. "Don't say her name!"

"Whose?" Kaoru blinked.

"Misao." Megumi said.

Sano twitched. "She's psychic…" he caught Karou's look and shook his head. "Well not Psychic-psychic… just crazy. And she'll know if we're talking about her."

"Uh-huh…" Kaoru blinked.

"You were supposed to be driving." Megumi reminded him and he started up the car.

Kaoru settled back in the seat and looked out the window. They were driving to a part of the city she had never been before. Before her eyes the city seemed to clean itself up. The people on the streets changed from the tattered and dirty homeless to people who wore business suits. Even the thoughts brushing against her shields were happier and less desperate.

The dirt and grim seemed to have vanished and everything suddenly seemed brighter. Less depressed. Flowers were everywhere and Kaoru's eyes widened at the sheer amount of color on display.

Flowers…

They were expensive and rare where Kaoru was and to see them so prominently displayed had her gaping slightly.

Dove had loved flowers…. Her chest tightened in memory.

"We're here." Sano announced.

Kaoru felt the car slow and then roll to a stop in front of a rather large building. From the others thoughts around her she realized it was called a mall.

"Are you going to sit there and stare all day?" Megumi demanded.

Kaoru jerked herself out of her thoughts and glared at Megumi who glared back.

"You'd think you never saw a mall before." Megumi snorted.

"I… haven't." Kaoru admitted softly.

Megumi raised an eyebrow. "Come on we have shopping do."

And that was how Kaoru found herself dragged into to the mall.

It was crowded. Kaoru immediately thickened her shields against the onslaught of others thoughts. It wasn't that they were bad or anything – hell of a lot happier than the ones she was subjected to in other places. It was just the sheer amount of them were giving her a headache.

Megumi's grin was evil as she proceeded to haul Kaoru bodily into the nearest store.

Kaoru glanced over at Sano who gave her a smile and waved at her.

"Get back here!" She screeched as he disappeared.

"Okay…" Kaoru found herself spun around Megumi looking at her with a critical eye. "Don't have much in the way of curves do you?"

Kaoru glared, bristling slightly.

"Follow me; this store doesn't have clothes to fit you."

Kaoru was left sputtering after a quickly vanishing Megumi.

It soon became clear to Kaoru that she hated shopping.

Or at least hated shopping with Megumi.

Dammit she was so PICKY!

"I should just find what I like, steal it and split." Kaoru grumbled as she watched Megumi rifle through the clothing racks occasionally flinging a shirt or pair of pants into the shopping cart.

"Are we done yet?" Kaoru asked.

"Nope." Megumi flung another shirt into the cart. "Still have to buy shoes."

Kaoru whimpered softly.

"There you are!"

Kaoru spun around at the sound of Sano's voice to find him standing a few feet away holding cups of what smelled like coffee.

"Truce?" He offered the one of the coffees to Megumi grinning.

Megumi's eyes narrowed but she took the coffee she was offered.

"Here, didn't know what you wanted." Sano shrugged and handed her one of the cups.

Kaoru took it automatically and sipped tentatively. It was flooded with cream and sugar, so sweet she could almost feel her teeth rotting in her mouth. Perfect.

"Thanks," she nodded at him.

"No prob." He grinned at her.

"Done!" Megumi announced, flinging the final pair of pants into the cart. "Now onto shoes."

"Do I get to try them on?" Kaoru asked.

"No." Megumi said.

"Why?" Kaoru asked.

"You'd make a run for it the second we took our eyes off you." Megumi said.

Kaoru's eyes narrowed. … She would too… if only to get away from Megumi… who was having a little TOO much fun picking out clothes for her to wear.

"Can I at least see the clothes you've picked out for me?" Kaoru asked.

Megumi nodded. "Sure."

Eyeing the piles of clothes in the cart, Kaoru inched over to it and picked up the least offending of the clothes. A black really soft turtleneck. One look at the tag however had her heart coming to a stop.

"….Do all those zeros count…?" She blinked several times at the price tag.

"Yep."

"Oh," Kaoru said faintly placing the turtleneck back down in the cart.

'I think my entire month's worth of stealing came up to a little less than that turtleneck.' Kaoru shook her head.

"…Who is paying for this?" Kaoru asked, still trying to process everything.

"Team has a rather cushy monthly allowance." Megumi shrugged.

"Oh…okay…" Kaoru blinked again. "…So this is like Kenshin's money…?"

"You could say that." Sano grinned.

"Buy more stuff Megumi." Kaoru said.

000

A while later they were seated at one of the small restaurants that ringed the mall.

Kaoru eyed the small mountain of bags. Clothes – tons of them. Shoes – did she really need 16 pairs of shoes? And various other knickknacks. Megumi had dragged her into a furniture store and all Kaoru remembered was that she bought several pieces of furniture… she wasn't sure what kind or how many but it was furniture.

Her head ached and was spinning.

"How are you holding up?" Sano asked.

Kaoru whimpered softly in response. "Are we done yet?"

"Nope," Megumi's voice was almost obscenely cheerful.

Kaoru dropped her gaze to her soup and salad and sighed. The menu had, had dishes she had no clue of what they were so she went with something simple – thus a soup and salad.

"So Sano…" She spooned some soup into her mouth. "How exactly did you end up as a cop?"

"Hmm?"

"You're not as… neurotic as some of the others." Kaoru pointed out.

"Meaning I'm not all 'Psychic-bad! Die! Die!" Sano grinned.

"Something likes that…" Kaoru mused.

"I grew up on the streets." Sano shrugged. "Little street-rat kid, getting into fights and having run-ins with the wrong sort…"

"And you ended up as a cop how?" Kaoru asked.

"I was fourteen and living as a fighter-for-higher… ran into Captain Sagara… and the rest is history."

"Sagara…?" The name sounded vaguely familiar.

"Died three years ago in a big fire-fight between some drug dealers," Sano's eyes were dark. "I took over Squad Twenty Seven after that."

"And you're now fighting Psychics," Kaoru murmured.

"I get to fight people, have a roof over my head and food is always there. Plus I get paid a whole lot more for it." Sano grinned.

Megumi rolled her eyes. "And yet you still owe people money, avoid paying for things and have a tab to rival the governor's salary."

Sano coughed and suddenly became very interested in his steak.

"Nothing against Psychics really." He shrugged. "They never did anything to me when I was younger."

Unlike Kenshin.

"Ah," Kaoru nodded.

"Done yet?" Megumi asked.

"Why?" Kaoru asked warily. "We're not getting more clothes are we?"

"Oh no," Megumi's eyes glittered. "You're getting a haircut."

Kaoru blinked, "haircut..?"

"Yes haircut." Megumi frowned at her. "Who's been cutting your hair?"

"I have."

"It shows," Megumi snorted. "You need to lose about four inches and have the ends evened out."

Kaoru clutched her braid defensively. "There is nothing wrong with my hair!"

"Be good or I'll have it dyed blond."

Kaoru squeaked softly at the mental image she got from Megumi.

Sano was chuckling beside her and Megumi glared at him. "Stop it or I'll have them shave your head and you'll be a bald rooster."

Sano choked.

On that happy note Megumi made Sano pay and then pick up the bags and grabbed Kaoru's wrist to make sure she didn't try to flee.

The looks on the faces of the hairdressers were a mixture of horror and glee. Horror over the state of Kaoru's hair and glee that Megumi gave them free rein to do whatever they wished with it.

Thus Kaoru ended up having six inches cut off, the ends even out and multiple layers throughout. The end result wasn't all that bad even Kaoru had to admit. It was certainly better than what she had ever managed to do with a pair of scissors.

"Like it?" Megumi asked.

"Yes," Kaoru admitted.

"Thought you would," Megumi said smugly.

Kaoru heard Sano groan in the direction Megumi had forced him to stay with the words "move up from that chair and you'll end up bald." He looking decidedly uncomfortable in the neon pink chair and eyeing one of the hairdressers – a transvestite by the name of Kamatari with undisguised fear.

'If he comes near me I swear I'm going to go hide behind Megumi!' He wailed.

Kaoru snorted.

"Sano give me five of those bags." Megumi instructed.

Sano got up, grabbed the nearest bags to him and giving Kamatari a wide berth came over to where they were.

"There's a dressing room in the back." Megumi told Kaoru and took the bags from Sano and deposited them in Kaoru's arms. "Go put together something to wear."

'Yes Mistress,' Kaoru rolled her eyes and did as she was told.

The clothes were much better than Kaoru could have anticipated. The tags were removed – probably by Megumi – which may have been a good thing since if Kaoru had any idea of how much exactly all of it cost, she would have undoubtedly gone into sticker shock – Kenshin more-or-less paying for it notwithstanding.

After trying several things on Kaoru finally came up with an outfit that she liked. The black turtleneck from before and a black of pair of jeans, there was a pair of knee-high black silver-buckled boots with two inches heels – enough to give her some height without being cumbersome and a red trench coat (subtle strained nod to the fact that the Police's uniform color was black) that fell to just above her knees. A pair of black-lace finger-less gloves rounded out the ensemble.

Kaoru tied her newly cut hair up in a ponytail with one of her newly bought hair ribbons. It was red to match the monochromatic feel of red and black for the entire outfit.

When she stepped out of the dressing room she was greeted by Sano giving a whistle that was entirely good-natured and even Megumi grinned.

"Damn Missy you do clean up nice," Sano grinned.

Kaoru stuck her tongue out at him.

He stuck his out in reply.

Megumi rolled her eyes. "Children please…"

"Megumi we need to petition Hiko to not make us wear uniforms." Sano whined.

"He makes us wear uniforms for a reason moron." Megumi snorted. "I'd hate to see what you or Katsu for that matter would go around in…"

"Could see you in black leather," he muttered and dodged her swipe.

Kaoru snorted at the mental image she got from him. Megumi in black leather with chains… The first thing she'd do with one of those chains would be strangling him to death.

He grinned at Kaoru and winked.

Megumi rolled her eyes again and muttered something Kaoru couldn't here.

"Sano grab the bags we're done shopping for the day."

"For the day?" Kaoru groaned.

"Why do I have to carry the bags?" Sano grumbled. "Why couldn't you be a telekinetic and levitate things?" He muttered at Kaoru.

"Poor baby," Kaoru tsked. 'And if I WAS a telekinetic I'd probably be dead right about now. Bad enough I'm a telepath living in the same house with Kenshin… Telekinetic? I' I wouldn't have lasted an hour.'

Sano grabbed the bags and they both followed Megumi out of the hair salon.

They had gone only a few steps when Kaoru stopped, tensing.

Teasing at the corners of her consciousness was a wave of darkness. Dark twisted thoughts that spiraled and writhed around each other forming a dark haze. Pain… Anger… An all-consuming rage and the need to hurt…

"What is it?" Megumi stopped looking at Kaoru and noticing the expression on her face.

"Berserker," Kaoru breathed.

"Where?" Sano asked.

"Coming this way…" Kaoru spun around and sent out a searching thread of thought after the darkness that roiled at the edge of her mind.

She located it the second that screams began to ring through the air.

"Shit!" Sano cursed.

Kaoru echoed his sentiments.

It was too crowded here… Too many people who could get hurt…

Kaoru gritted her teeth together.

"Megumi go put the bags in the car. Sano come with me."

Megumi nodded tensely and grabbed the bags, disappearing into the sea of people that were beginning to run away as the hysteria stemming from where the Berserker was began to spread.

Kaoru barely noticed Sano at her side as she sprinted in the direction of where the Berserker was.

'Who are you?' Kaoru asked. 'What are you?'

Silence descended just as they reached where the Berserker was.

At first Kaoru's brain refused to function.

The Berserker stood screaming surrounded by bodies.

And then Kaoru knew exactly what kind of Psychic she was dealing with.

A telepath like herself.

It was some comfort that Kaoru didn't recognize who the other telepath was. A girl slightly taller and perhaps a year or two older than she was. Her hunter green eyes were wide and staring, the gaze glassy and uncomprehending, the pupil was a mere pinprick.

Her chestnut hair was matted and knotted around her face falling nearly to hips in a tangle. She was wearing a tank-top that may have once been white. Her jeans were faded and had huge holes in the knees. She was barefoot and her feet were covered with dirt and cuts. She didn't seem to even notice.

Her screams rose in pitch.

The only thing Kaoru could get from her was rage and darkness and the urge to hurt.

Her head swung back and forth eyes ghosting over them and not really seeing them.

That was a good thing. Once she did notice that they were there she would attack and kill them… or do her best to kill them.

"No," Kaoru murmured softly as Sano reached for his gun.

He froze, glancing over at her.

Kaoru took a deep breath and thickened her shields, expanding hers to cover Sano as well. If she did attack she would be able to break through them, but it would be the difference between ending up in the hospital in a coma and falling to the ground dead.

"Shh…" Kaoru murmured softly, taking a step toward the Berserker. "It's okay…Sophie." Her name was Sophie.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sano take a step forward and shook her head. He nodded and froze into place.

Kaoru continued to murmur softly under her breath. Nonsense words. Her tone was calm and soothing. She put a clamp down on her thoughts to still and keep them quiet not wanting to agitate her. It was the clamor and crush of the people around her's thoughts that had made her attack.

Sophie cocked her head slightly in Kaoru's direction.

Her pupil expanded and some of the glassy look faded. She blinked several times.

"Good girl," Kaoru breathed. "That's my girl."

Sophie blinked several more times and then shuddered slightly; her breath sped up coming in quick sharp pants.

Kaoru continued to inch ever so slightly toward her, speaking softly all the time.

"Wh-," Sophie swallowed reflexively, blinking several more times. "Who-?"

"Friend," Kaoru murmured. "Friend."

"Fr-friend," Sophie said softly.

"Yes," Kaoru said her tone soothing. "I'm your friend."

There were footsteps behind them and Kaoru tensed as she felt Megumi approach.

Sophie's head snapped up, her eyes widening and the pupil nearly disappearing. Her mouth twisted into a snarl and she tensed.

Kaoru felt the darkness in Sophie's mind condensed and collect, forming one large mass that screeched and writhed. It turned into a dagger and the sensations of pain and hate returned so fast and so intensely she nearly choked. It tensed and twisted in upon itself getting ready to pounce and destroy.

'No!' Kaoru cried and struck as hard as she could.

Sophie keened and stumbled back. Her nose was bleeding and there was a trickle of blood running from her ear and down her neck staining the edge of her tank top.

There were tears in her eyes as Kaoru as she sent another blast of power into Sophie.

Sophie jerked and then fell to the ground like a puppet whose strings had just been cut.

Kaoru darted forward and caught her just before she hit the ground.

Sophie blinked once at her, the look in her eyes for a brief moment clear before turning fogged and dull.

Something like relief fluttered through Kaoru's mind and then it was gone before she could grab it.

A lump formed in her throat and she closed her eyes in effort to stop the tears that were falling.

She heard Sano and Megumi approach and tensed.

"Is she…?" Sano asked.

"Yeah," Kaoru nodded without opening her eyes.

"Was there anything you could have done?" Megumi's voice was soft.

Kaoru shook her head jerkily. "No… she was too far gone. There was almost nothing left of her that was truly her and not the madness..."

She opened her eyes to see the two of them staring at her. Kaoru dropped her gaze back to Sophie and pushed the strands off her face. Carefully she set her down on the ground and got to her feet.

"Sano call headquarters for a clean up crew." Megumi murmured.

Kaoru flinched.

"You couldn't have done anything." Megumi told her.

"And that's what makes it hurt so much." Kaoru replied.

She could see the car parked halfway up the block – Megumi must have driven it over here and then gotten out of it. Without looking at either of them she walked toward it and away from the bodies.

About half an hour passed, Kaoru could see the ambulances and Police squad cars converging on the scene.

The door opened and Sano and Megumi both slid into the driver and passenger respectively.

Kaoru blinked when Sano thrust a mug of what smelled like chocolate at her.

"You look really pale."

It was only as he said it that Kaoru realized how tired she exactly was. The adrenaline or whatever it was that had kicked in when Sophie had appeared fled her instantly. She sagged against the seat, clutching her cup of hot chocolate.

Kaoru closed her eyes on the drive back to the compound occasionally taking a sip. She felt some of the tiredness roll away as the chocolate and caffeine took effect.

"And we're back." Sano said as he parked the car.

Kaoru snorted softly and got out.

"Sano." Megumi smiled sweetly at him.

Sano rolled his eyes. "Carry the bags in?"

"If you would be so kind." Megumi replied.

"Get the door willya?"

"Sure." Megumi nodded.

Kaoru trailed in behind them.

"Megumi what the hell did you do go on a shopping spree!" Uno's exclaimed... she then caught sight of Kaoru.

And suddenly everyone was looking at her.

There was a grin tugging at the corner of Takasugi's mouth.

Iizuka's face…well Kaoru was just glad she had her shields firmly in place and was showing no skin.

Kenshin's eyebrow rose and his face was unreadable.

Kaoru fought the urge to turn around and flee.

"Damn…" Uno shook her head. "Why does she get the cool clothes!"

Kaoru ducked her head and yelped as Uno suddenly grabbed her into the center of the room.

"Love the boots! And trench coat… and dammit those gloves rock." Uno squealed bouncing slightly.

Kaoru shoved her hands into her pockets.

"Kenshin!" Uno wailed. "I want a trench coat!"

"You're not getting one." Kenshin replied.

Uno pouted, "But Aoshi has one."

"You have enough knives on you." Takasugi snorted. "I don't even want to know how high that number would go to if we gave you more spots to hide them."

"Spoilsport," Uno stuck her tongue out at him.

Kaoru began to inch ever so slightly away.

"Nuh-uh!" Uno's hand lashed out and grabbed her arm and Kaoru found herself propelled into the couch. "You're gonna stop being a recluse."

Kaoru blinked. 'The hell?' And hard on the heels of it. 'Oh dear I think I just got adopted by Uno.'

"Megumi," Uno turned toward her. "What else did you buy?"

"Lots of stuff." Megumi grinned and held up some of the bags.

"What else did you buy her?" Kaoru blinked as Kenshin said it.

"Furniture," Megumi shrugged.

"She already has furniture." Kenshin pointed out.

Megumi snorted. "A bed and dresser. Oh yes Kenshin that is furniture."

Kenshin's eyes narrowed.

"She's part of the team we can't allow her to run around in rags." Megumi sniffed. "It would look bad."

Kaoru twitched.

Kenshin growled softly and Kaoru could practically see him swallowing whatever words he was about to say. She hoped he choked on them.

She wanted to flee. But there was nowhere to go. Her room… she didn't want to go near it… Outside…too many people in the way.

"There was a Berserker attack near the mall." Kenshin said.

Kaoru jerked her gaze up.

"Yeah," Megumi nodded. "It was taken care of."

"By who?" Kenshin's eyes narrowed.

"Kaoru."

And once more everyone was staring at her again.

Kaoru eyed the couch and wondered if the whole 'black-hole' rumor about couches were true. She really, really wanted to disappear right about now.

"You took care of it?" Kenshin asked.

Kaoru flinched. "Yes."

"How many casualties?" Kenshin directed his question to Megumi.

"Seventeen," she replied.

"Low number," Takasugi murmured.

"Wounds?"

"We're fine." Sano replied.

"Kaoru handled her well." Megumi said.

Kenshin's eyes could have bored holes through her and Kaoru attempted to make herself smaller.

"So you killed a Psychic." Kenshin murmured.

Kaoru bristled slightly. "It was a mercy killing. There was nothing left of her."

"You sound like you've done this before."

"I have," Kaoru murmured softly

Kenshin's eyebrow rose.

Kaoru suddenly became very interested in a patch of paint on the wall above his shoulder.

"We take care of our own." Kaoru voice was nearly a whisper. "If it means killing them to save them from themselves we do it."

Kenshin's jaw tightened.

Kaoru smiled slightly. "Her name was Sophie. She was a telepath like me."

Like me.

Not different at all.

I will end up eventually like her.

A Berserker.

Raging and pain-filled.

Will it be Kenshin who puts me down?

Kaoru closed her eyes and rubbed at her face the tiredness returning full force.

She stood up from the couch, feeling slightly shaky. "I'm going to my… room." She inclined her head at Megumi. "Thank you for the clothes."

She could feel Kenshin's eyes on her back as she took the steps up the stairs.

"Kaoru."

Kaoru paused at the sound of his voice.

"Good job."

"It's a job I'd rather not have." Kaoru murmured and then walked away.


	6. Chapter 6

Hello everyone.

Once more Nightfall is Rated M and it deserves it's rating. This is not a happy fic. It has lots of icky stuff in it.

Warnings: Drunken Psychics, Irish Tavern Songs, Idiot Informers, And General Yuck.

Enjoy!

Shiin

000

Kaoru blinked at Kenshin, "new mission?" She echoed.

"Yes." He replied shortly.

Kaoru rolled her eyes, "where at?"

"The Narrows."

Kaoru blinked once and then blinked again, slower this time. "The Red Light District?"

She didn't want to anywhere near The Narrows.

"Yes." Kenshin nodded. "We have a mission there."

"We… as in us… me and you?" Kaoru suddenly had the urge to get very, very drunk.

"Megumi has your clothes already set out." Kenshin told her.

Kaoru flinched.

Megumi and clothes should never be said in the same sentence together.

With an acute feeling of doom she went upstairs to see what exactly Megumi had laid out for her.

…It was both as bad as she feared and not so much so…

Kaoru actually wasn't showing much skin…

And as Megumi so nicely put it "you don't have the boobs to pull off a tube-top."

The top was a vaguely kimono-style with a deep V-neck and long sleeves. It was black and the obi was purple with small silver leaves embroidered in the cloth. Megumi showed her where she had hidden small darts in the cloth. Megumi had also given her clip-on earrings (since her ears weren't pierced) that if you twisted them off became small daggers.

A short black mini-skirt and black thigh-high boots that only a hooker would wear and black hair-ribbon completed the outfit.

She was showing very little skin, that was the outfit's only saving grace.

Iizuka was also nowhere to be seen; Kaoru spared a thankful thought to whatever deity was looking out for her at this moment.

Kenshin's appearance had her blinking.

His distinctive red hair had been dyed black and braided tightly. A pair of sunglasses covered his eyes and he was wearing a suit.

He looked just like every other after-work John prowling around for a quick screw.

That thought had her shuddering and it was even before she noticed the black-lace collar in his hands.

"What the hell is that for?"

"For you." His tone of voice made her eyebrows rise.

"Where in The Narrows are we going to?" She demanded. She could think of several clubs and… establishments where collars and handcuffs were standard attire and mandatory unless you wanted to advertise yourself as 'free' and she didn't want to step foot near any of them.

"Black Out."

"The fuck?" Kaoru hissed eyes widening. Black Out had a reputation that was nasty even compared to the other brothels and clubs in The Narrows. Sure it supposedly gave off the air of elegance – but once you got into one of its backrooms it had a whole different face.

Kaoru had thankfully never been there but she had heard stories...

"How scared is this asshole that we're going to interrogate?" She asked.

"Very." Kenshin replied shortly.

"Must be," Kaoru hissed.

Black Out didn't mind its patrons hurting one another but they drew the line at outright killing and were known to kill the murdering party even just to maintain the status quo and deflect a retaliatory war. It was neutral ground… or as neutral a ground as you were going to get in The Narrows.

"Put that collar on me and I'll break your hands." Kaoru snarled.

Even though his eyes were hidden Kaoru could feel the glare he was aiming at her. "Megumi?"

Megumi grinned and took the collar from Kenshin's hands and walked toward her.

"Gotcha," she looped the collar around her neck and secured it.

Kaoru rolled her eyes and fought the urge to give her a mental smack. "Go collar someone that wants to be collared… Like Sano."

Megumi snorted and held out the lead to Kenshin. "All yours."

"Give me one reason," Kaoru hissed softly. "One reason and you'll end up as a vegetable unable to remember how to brush your teeth."

An eyebrow rose. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Good," Kaoru snarled and followed him out of the house, her entire body tense.

The ride to The Narrows was short; Kaoru put as much space between them as possible. Kenshin's shields were up and intact and no stray thoughts escaped. More importantly she was unable to pick up any thoughts about her.

That was always a good thing.

Kaoru half-wished she'd taught Iizuka to shield but -

A. Being alone with him in the same room was going to have him end up dead

B. He'd conveniently 'forget' and

C. See A.

Kaoru shuddered as they got out of the car.

The Narrows… definitely not a place she'd ever willingly go.

A tingly-buzz raced across her skin and she shuddered. You could almost taste the lust in the air.

The Brothels and Clubs ranged from Gaudy (flashing lights advertising their…wares and services) to Elegant almost-gothic letters – less vulgar and attempting to be more 'refined'.

There were prostitutes on every corner.

Some were young… she was reminded painfully, almost sickeningly of Dove.

Others looked to be about her age.

Still more were older – late twenties and middle-aged no way out and too immersed in drugs that they could count their remaining days on their fingers before they overdosed or their Pimp offed an unproductive whore.

She hissed, thickening her shields and fought the urge to press against Kenshin in an effort to escape.

"You are NEVER bringing me anywhere near here again!" She seethed.

"Keep moving," Kenshin replied shortly and she noticed a slight quickening of his pace.

It was like Iizuka times ten.

There was a bitter taste in Kaoru's mouth and she fought the urge to spit.

Hate this! Hate this! It became a mental chant.

"You okay?" Kenshin's voice was so low she barely heard it.

"Keep moving," she threw his own words back at him. 'Otherwise I might just break down and have hysterics if I stop and actually concentrate on everything.'

Kenshin growled softy and nodded.

As they rounded a corner Kaoru let out a soft curse.

She tackled Kenshin pushed him against the wall.

"What?" Kenshin growled.

"Shut up." She snarled. She yanked her hair ribbon free from her hair and let it curtain around her, burying her face in Kenshin's neck.

"What are you doing?" Kenshin hissed.

"Shut up." She repeated. "And stay quiet."

She opened up a part of her mind to monitor the Psychic she had spotted. Zephyr was a hydrokinetic and Kaoru had met him several times before. He had been half-in-love with Leiko and hated Ricky. He had tried to hit on her several times when it became apparent that he would get nowhere with Leiko.

He had only stopped after Kaoru had grabbed him and threatened to make him voluntarily turn himself into a Eunuch, all the while singing Itsy-Bitsy-Spider if he didn't cut it out.

Cut it out, or she'd make him cut something important out.

No… he definitely wouldn't need an excuse to try to kill her if he saw her.

He was coming closer and Kaoru tensed.

'Can't believe I'm actually going to say this…'

"Act interested in me." She ground out.

"What!"

'Let's see… die a painful death… touch Kenshin… I'll probably die later… but at least I'll have time to say my prayers or what the fuck…'

"Nasty Psychic who has it out for me… you too most likely… unless you want to die… pretend I'm a prostitute…shouldn't be that fucking hard." She snarled.

Kenshin stayed frozen and Kaoru wished she had something hard to beat her head against.

"Are you gay?" She muttered. "Because with your built… and hair….and height…"

She bit back a curse as she suddenly found herself slammed against the wall.

Behind his glasses Kenshin's eyes were blazing and he was cursing softly.

"At least you're touching me," Kaoru rolled her eyes and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him closer.

She felt Zephyr pause and wanted to scream.

'Fuck off and go away!' She hissed silently.

Zephyr didn't move.

"Okay!" Kaoru whispered fiercely. "I am not dying because of you being an idiot. You can take a shower later but unless you want to end up dead. Touch. Me. And look like you're enjoying it."

"No other way?" Kenshin murmured, his eyes were hidden by his glasses but Kaoru could almost tangibly feel his glare.

"Am I acting like there's another way out of this?" Kaoru snapped.

Kenshin didn't respond for a moment. She could practically hear his teeth grinding faintly. Her mind raced through the possibilities – knock Zephyr out? It would attract too much attention…

There really was no way out of this.

"Kenshin!" She hissed, feeling Zephyr coming closer.

He grabbed her chin. "Shut up," he said softly.

Kaoru opened her mouth to respond rather scathingly but felt her thoughts break and scatter as he lowered his mouth to hers. His mouth was soft, carefully undemanding, and almost tentative. He was tense against her and Kaoru kept her shields up as she felt the briefest brush of his mind against hers.

His thoughts fluttered against her shields too light and quick for her to be able to catch and hear. Emotions too tangled and swift for her decipher.

Kaoru would have pursued them just but she was a bit distracted at the moment and struggling to keep her own barriers up and thoughts together.

'He really should not be able to kiss this well…'

Kaoru could just imagine the reactions of the other Psychics… first you work for the Enemy (police)… then you kiss the Enemy… then you're in bed with the Enemy… Her title as the Police's New Lapdog Bitch would probably be changed immediately to Free-For-All Whore.

She felt Zephyr turn and a walk away and sighed.

Pulling away she buried her face against Kenshin's shoulder as she attempted to collect her thoughts.

'He smells really good…' she thought distractedly. Some kind of spice… ginger? She wasn't sure. Then she realized what she was doing and stepped back.

"Gone?" Kenshin's voice was emotionless.

"Yes," Kaoru nodded quickly and straightened, tugging at her clothes.

"Let's go," Kenshin brushed past her before she could respond and left her staring after him.

Kaoru smothered a curse and hurried after him as quickly as she could in her boots. 'Stupid death shoes from hell! I am going to put him on the end of this bloody leash and see how he likes being dragged around!'

"Wait up!"

Kenshin paused long enough for her to catch up.

Kaoru noticed he carefully wasn't looking at her.

That was fine.

She stared straight ahead, walking next to him and violently pounced on and killed any of her thoughts that started with K.

The walk to Black Out took only a few more silent minutes. Kaoru did her best to keep her eyes straight ahead and not look around.

What she could see had her fighting back a blush. Kaoru thought with everything that she'd seen – she'd see it all.

Apparently not.

And Kaoru didn't even want to know what was going on in the back alleys where she couldn't see. The thoughts and impressions she was getting against her shields had her shuddering.

At last they came to Black Out.

Kaoru followed Kenshin in and into a large room that must have once been a ballroom of some sort. The Narrows had been at the very beginning when people had flooded into the City to escape the outside war, a high-class section of the City. Many of the brothels had formerly been hotels and theatres among other things.

But the times had changed and the rich and influential had moved out to other sections of the City.

Everything inside Black Out was done in a monochromatic scheme of black and silver. It was quietly and understatedly elegant. There were black-clad men and women moving silently through the crowd of people that filled the main floor. The clothes were gossamer silk so fine they were almost see-through but the entire effect wasn't vulgar. They weren't showing any more skin really than Kaoru.

Kaoru never thought she'd ever put 'elegant' and 'brothel' together in the same mental breath.

The thoughts against her shields were quieter and more hushed. Cautious almost. She felt some tension drain from her shoulders and let out a sigh.

Kenshin's eyes flickered over to her. "How are you doing?"

He sounded concerned. Slightly.

"Better," Kaoru murmured.

Kenshin nodded scanning the crowd of people around them.

"So what do we do?" Kaoru asked. "Stand around and wait for him to approach us?"

"There he is," Kenshin moved through the crowds leaving Kaoru to chase after him again.

'I swear I'm putting him on a damned leash,' she seethed hurrying after him. 'I HATE these shoes!'

The informant was a middle-aged slightly heavy set man. He was looking decidedly jumpy, black eyes darting around and a half-full glass of wine in his hand. He reeked of alcohol and was on his fourth glass already.

Kaoru winced at the tangled mass of fear-tinged thoughts that bounced against her shields.

To say he was terrified for his life was an understatement.

She just hoped he wasn't too drunk to be useful.

"Battousai," there was relief evident in his voice as Kaoru and Kenshin neared him.

Kaoru snorted despite herself. Where Psychics said Battousai's name with a mixture of fear, loathing and disgust… the Normals said it respectfully with something close to awe.

The fact that he towered over Kenshin by nearly a foot made it all the more laughable.

"Carl," Kenshin replied coolly.

Kaoru choked back a laugh. Their informant was drunk. And he was named Carl. And he was meeting them in a brothel. Oh it couldn't get any worse or more bizarre could it?

Carl looked back and forth between Kenshin and Kaoru eyes lingering on the collar around Kaoru's neck. "Why did you bring a prostitute with you?"

Kaoru's eyes widened and she stifled the urge to punch him in the face and break his nose.

He didn't even know she was a Psychic that was the worst bit. So she couldn't blame the association of Psychic equals whore.

'The hell?' She hissed. 'Do I have slut branded across my forehead and no one's telling me anything?'

"You planned this didn't you?" Kaoru muttered under her breath low enough for Kenshin to hear.

"Can she be trusted?" Carl asked.

Kaoru rolled her eyes. Carl wasn't the brightest informant ever was he?

No wonder he was scared for his life.

"Yes," Kenshin's voice was clipped. "Do you have a room where we can discuss this privately?"

Carl nodded and drained his glass of wine in one gulp and motioned for them to follow him.

Kaoru winced.

Oh she was so NOT looking forward to going into his mind.

At least he was walking in a somewhat straight line…

Somewhat…

Kaoru felt like banging her head against something hard when he tripped going up the stairs.

She glanced over at Kenshin. Aside from the tightness around his mouth – she could imagine his eyes were narrowed into a glare – he didn't appear to be all that unfazed by Carl's lack of sobriety.

Either this was how Carl usually acted… Or other informants were very much so like Carl…

If all the Police were getting information from drunk informants no wonder the City was in the state it was in…

Carl led them up the stairs and down a hallway which continued the scheme of black and silver. There were pictures on the wall, artistic nudity that slowly became more graphic. Kaoru jerked her gaze away before she could start wondering how that was even physically possible.

Luckily (or perhaps not – at this point she wasn't sure) Carl seemed too drunk to be noticing them.

So at leas she wasn't getting assaulted by drunken innuendoes.

They passed three black doors and finally at the fourth Carl stopped and pulled a key from his pocket. He unlocked the door and turned the knob going inside and not waiting for them.

Kaoru's already low opinion of him fell by the second. If they had been out to kill him Carl was leaving his back wide open. If they had been sent to protect him (which in a way they had) he should have let them into the room first to make sure there was no one waiting to kill him.

Either way he was stupid.

A quick touch at his muddled mind told her he wasn't carrying a weapon.

HOW had the idiot (and that was being a generous – Kaoru couldn't think of a lesser word at the moment to describe his stupidity) lasted this long without being killed!

Maybe he had lasted so long because he WAS so stupid. Whoever he was working for probably thought he was not a threat and didn't think to censor whatever they were saying around him.

Inside the room everything was except for the silver chandelier, silver curtains around the extremely large bed and an equally as large silver rug on the floor in front of it.

There didn't appear to be any places to sit and Kaoru eyed the bed warily.

No way in hell was she coming within ten feet of it.

"Tell us what information you have," Kenshin took off his glasses. In the dim light he was probably nearly blind.

"I don't really know that much," Carl admitted. "I'm not high enough up in the chain to get concrete information. What I have is third-hand at best."

Kaoru grit her teeth. She'd been dragged on this mission for third fucking hand information _at best_!

"Tell us what you do know," Kenshin's eyes were narrowed.

Kaoru wondered how he was refraining from smacking him. She was doing her best to give into the urge herself.

"Kanryuu is supposedly working on some new drug." Carl said.

Kaoru blinked. Kanryuu… she'd heard the name somewhere…

"Supposed?" Kenshin's voice was cold. "Do you know or not?"

Carl blinked, "maybe… possibly… probably?" He offered.

"Can I maybe – possibly – probably kill him?" Kaoru hissed.

"We need him alive," Kenshin replied.

"I can't possibly see why," Kaoru muttered.

Kenshin made a soft sound that almost could be mistaken for a sigh. "Just go into his mind and pull out any information regarding Kanryuu."

Kaoru eyed Carl and calculated the side-effects as best she could…

At least he was still coherent despite the fact that he reeked of alcohol… it'd be a lot worse if he was a passed out slobbering drunk…

She really did not want to get even the slightest bit tipsy in a brothel of all places.

She briefly pondered telling Kenshin what going into the mind of a drunk was going to do to her…

No wait maybe not… And in a perverse way she wanted Kenshin to have to deal with the consequences. Served the bastard right. He got her into this mess (for blasted third hand information) he could deal with it. It was only fair.

Taking a deep breath she lowered her shields and entered his mind.

It felt like diving into really thick goopy water. Kaoru often found the smarter a person was the clearer and more concise their thoughts and mindscapes were. Needless to say Carl's IQ points weren't very many.

Him being drunk wasn't helping at all either.

After a moment she found what she needed on Kanryuu.

Ugh… she shuddered mentally. Someone was a really, really nasty bastard… She collected the information and put it into the back of her mind under a nice neat little box labeled 'information from shitty mission.' She then suggested strongly for Carl to go to sleep and he dropped to the floor instantly, snoring slightly.

Pulling out she felt some of the residue of his mind stick to her.

She giggled slightly as she pulled out of his mind and settled back into hers. It quickly became apparent that she'd totally misjudged the state of Carl's drunkenness. He was much bigger than she was and despite the fact that he seemed semi-sober, he had enough alcohol in him to make her _way_ more than a little tipsy.

Kenshin was eyeing her.

"He's drunk," Kaoru said by way of explanation, a grin tugging at her lips.

Oh she was drunk.

She was very, very drunk.

At any other time she would have been horrified but the drunken-state of Carl's mind that had spilled into hers, made it seem funny.

She giggled slightly and hummed under her breath.

"I know he is," Kenshin replied. His eyes narrowed slightly and Kaoru could practically hear the audible click in his brain.

Kaoru grinned lopsidedly. "You have really pretty hair…Even tho' it's black and not red… still pretty…"

Kenshin didn't look amused. "How drunk are you?"

"Uh…" she attempted to think…"….not too much…no not a lot…" She bent down and began to unlace her boots.

"What are you doing?" Kenshin blinked.

"Taking off my shoes," she said in a no duh tone of voice.

"Why?" Kenshin blinked again.

"I'm too high up," she explained.

Kenshin muttered something she couldn't quite catch.

"There are no such things as skunks," she scolded.

"Let's get you out of here," Kenshin muttered, looking quickly at Carl's prone body and deciding that it was best to leave him there.

"Hey let go of me!" She yelped as he grabbed her arm. "Wait! Shoes! Never mind… stupid slut boots can walk their way home to the jail…"

Kenshin growled softly and grabbed her boots in one hand and dragged her out of the room.

"I can walk!" She protested, tugging at his arm and managing to wrench her arm out of his grasp.

And she could walk…

Err… stagger around slightly.

Kaoru yipped softly as she lost her balance and fell against the wall. Looking upward she blinked, eyes widening at one of the pictures above her head.

"Is that fake? Do they really get that big?"

She yelped as Kenshin grabbed her none too gently and dragged her down the hallway at a much faster pace.

"Why didn't you tell me you get… influenced by the state of the minds that you are in?" He hissed under his breath.

Kaoru blinked owlishly at him, "you didn't ask… Batt'sai… Batts…Battsy." She giggled slightly.

"Can't believe this," Kenshin growled.

"Gimme my slut-shoes back," Kaoru demanded.

"You'll break your ankle walking around in those things. And slow us down."

"My feet are cold," she whined.

"I should knock you out cold," he retorted.

"Nu-uh," Kaoru wagged a finger at him, eyes narrowing as two appeared in her field of vision. "Don't do that it's not nice."

He tossed her, her shoes and waited impatiently as she slipped her feet back into them and clumsily tied the laces and managed to get to her feet on the third try.

"C'mon," Kaoru walked in front of him, weaving slightly. She paused in front of the stairs, waiting for him to catch up.

Kenshin hissed and repressed the urge to toss her down the stairs on her ass.

"Whoops!" Kaoru tripped going down the stairs and leaned against him for balance. "You smell really good," she muttered against his neck.

"You are really drunk," he pushed her off so she was standing on her own two feet again.

"Not my fault," Kaoru protested. "Stupid Carl…Drank too much…And I'm small…"

"You should have told me," Kenshin seethed.

"You shoulda asked," Kaoru replied. Her eyes narrowed and she tilted her head. "Hate brothels… icky people…Lots and lots of icky people…" She pointed a slightly shaking finger. "…he's here seeing a mistress… girl over there has an S&M fetish… eww… He's gay but won't tell anyone because he doesn't want his reputation to be ruined…"

"We're getting out of here." Kenshin grabbed her arm again and slipped through the crowds of people, pulling her along easily.

"Okay!" Kaoru said brightly. She half-waved at the crowds of people. "Bye!"

Kenshin was cursing under his breath as he pulled her out of Black Out and down the street.

"Ugh," Kaoru twitched. "Sex… drugs… all you need now is the rock and roll."

Kenshin sputtered softly. "Stop gawking."

"'M not gawking," Kaoru protested. "It's bad enough seeing it – try having it in your head…"

"I'll pass," Kenshin muttered.

Kaoru stuck her tongue out at him.

"When we get home I'm putting you under cold water."

"I'm not the one that needs cold water," Kaoru jerked her head in the direction of several rather sleazy looking middle-aged men. "They do."

Kenshin twitched. "Stop talking."

"Get them out of my head," Kaoru rolled her eyes.

"I would if I could," Kenshin grumbled.

Kaoru hummed under her breath. "There were three lovely lasses from Kimmage,  
From Kimmage, from Kimmage, from Kimmage… And whenever there with a bit of a scrimmage… Sure I was the toughest of all... Sure I was the toughest of all…"

Kenshin eyed her, "what are you singing?"

"Don't have a clue," Kaoru grinned. "It's running around in bozo's head over there." She hummed under her breath and continued singing. "When he gets a few jars he goes frantic… Frantic, goes frantic, goes frantic… But he's tall and he's dark and romantic  
And I love him in spite of it all…And I love him in spite of it all…" She blinked. "Do you think he's gay?"

Kenshin's teeth grinding could faintly be heard. "I don't know. I don't care. Please stop singing."

"New song," Kaoru said cheerfully. "What will you have? Will you have a pint?  
I'll have a pint with you sir… "She sang rather loudly and off key. "And if one of you don't order soon we'll be thrown out of the boozer!"

Kenshin muttered something under his breath so low she barely heard it.

Kaoru blinked and looked quizzically at him. "What do cars and nuns have to do with anything?"

"Nothing." Kenshin ground out. "Please. _Stop_ singing. Or I will knock you out and toss you over my shoulder and carry you to the pick-up point."

Kaoru pouted. "Spoilsport."

"He thought he take a trip to old Japan…They turned out a big brass band…  
You can take all of the instruments you've got…We got a lad that can play the whole lot….And the old church bells will ring – Hell's Bells! The old church choir will sing -Hells fire! They all turned out to say farewell to my big brother Sylvest –" The rest of her song was cut off when Kenshin clamped a hand over her mouth.

"One more word and I'm knocking you out." He warned.

Kaoru stifled the urge to either bite or lick his hand in order to get it away from her face. "I'll behave." She mumbled.

"Promise?" Kenshin eyed her warily.

Kaoru huffed, "yes!" She jerked her arm out of his grasp and walked in front of him, swaying every so slightly.

Kenshin noted that while she wasn't singing out loud any more she was humming. At least she was a fairly cheerful drunk and not too violent…

He blinked… was she tap-dancing…?

What in hell had he done to deserve this?

She yelped suddenly as the heel of her shoe broke sending her flying.

"Stupid slut shoes!" Kaoru hissed.

Kenshin watched in half-amusement, half-exasperation as she picked up the broken bit of her heel and flung it away.

Shaking his head he walked over to her and hauled her to her feet.

"Stupid shoes!" Kaoru repeated again and leaned against him for balance as she was now teetering around in mismatched shoes.

Kenshin sighed and fought the urge to rub his temples. She was giving him a very bad migraine.

Kaoru hummed under her breath.

"Stop it or I will throttle you." Kenshin warned.

"I'm not singing!" She said.

"You're _humming_."

"Humming isn't singing," Kaoru informed him.

Kenshin was not in the mood to get into the technicalities of humming vs. singing.

Kaoru opened her mouth to retort but suddenly went tense against him, mouth snapping shut with a click of teeth.

Kenshin followed her line of sight to see the Psychic they had dodged earlier the evening striding toward them. Her eyes had widened and her face had paled slightly except for high spots of color on her cheeks.

"Shit." Kaoru's glazed eyes suddenly had become very, very focused and Kenshin saw a flicker of unease race through them. He could see them darting around looking for someplace to hide. The facts that they were out in the open in the middle of the street and the Psychic had spotted them did not bode well for hiding.

"Hello Kaoru," there was a leer in his voice.

"Zephyr," Kaoru replied softly. Kenshin could feel her trembling against him and she was breathing slowly as if by sheer force of will.

"And here I thought you said you'd never turn whore. Guess the company you keep must have changed that. Tell me did they toss you out on your ass after you fucked all of them? What did you turn yourself into the police as their new bitch after you killed all of your family?"

Kaoru flinched and closed her eyes. "Go screw yourself Zephyr." When she opened them Kenshin saw that her eyes had nearly turned black and the look in them was dangerous. "I'm in no mood for your shit."

Zephyr turned toward Kenshin. "How much?" It was dark and Kenshin had his hair dyed. Thus he had not recognized Kenshin as Battousai and mistaken him for some normal John.

Kaoru wasn't sure if she should be grateful. Thinking Kaoru had turned into a whore was probably what was keeping her alive. If he knew that she was in-fact still working with the police and with Battousai he would no doubt attempt to kill the both of them.

Kaoru snarled. "I am not a prostitute! You fucking moron!"

"She's taken," Kenshin's voice was a growl.

Kaoru rounded on him, "back off I don't need your help."

"So does that mean I get you for free?" Zephyr smirked.

Kaoru's eyes narrowed. "Are you mixing some crazy pills with your Wunder?"

Zephyr tilted his head to the side, the color of his eyes shifting slightly. The leer on his face intensified.

Kaoru staggered her eyes flying wide and if anything she paled even more so. She yanked her arm free of Kenshin's grasp and stumbled back, her body shaking.

"Stop it." She hissed softly. "Stop it right now."

"Kaoru?" Kenshin murmured.

"Stop it!" Kaoru shrieked eyes closing and hands flying to cover her ears.

The prick was doing something to her. Kenshin just couldn't see what.

He tensed.

She was a Telepath…. But couldn't she shield…? Her actions during her drunkenness said otherwise… And Zephyr was a Psychic. He would know exactly what to do to set her off.

And if Kaoru retaliated… She didn't look to have the best control at the moment…

Kenshin had seen enough destruction from Berserkers to know exactly how much damage an out of control Psychic could do…

How exactly could he stop this? The usual method of killing them wasn't an option with her.

Shields…

She needed to shield to block out whatever it was that he was sending at her.

Frowning Kenshin concentrated on extending his own shields, touching across her mind and covering them.

Images flashed across his mind and he gritted his teeth, snarling softly.

Kaoru opened her eyes slightly; her breathing slowed the tiniest bit.

"Kenshin?" She murmured faintly.

Zephyr had made the mistake of thinking of Kenshin as a Normal. He hit the ground with blood streaming from his nose.

"Kenshin?" Zephyr's voice was slurred and muted as he cupped his spurting nose. "Ken… Battousai!" His eyes flickered upward seeing for the first time Kenshin's scars and golden eyes.

"Don't… kill him," Kaoru said softly.

Kenshin gave her a narrowed eyed look and saw her own eyes narrow in return, chin raising slightly.

"I'm not going to let you kill him." She said firmly.

"So what do you want to do with him?" Kenshin asked his voice flat.

Kaoru didn't reply and instead turned her gaze on Zephyr. Her eyes flickered and Zephyr made a soft gasping sound before his head fell back to the ground unconscious.

Kaoru shook her head and stepped over to him, nudging him onto his side with her toe. "So the bastard doesn't drown in his own blood," she muttered.

Kenshin raised an eyebrow, "what did you do?"

"Knocked him out," Kaoru replied.

There was something in her tone of voice that made him think she'd done something more. "And…?"

"Oh, erased his memories of meeting us and twisted a few things here and there." A slight grin curved her lips. "He won't be able to look at a girl now."

Kenshin blinked. "And why is that?"

"You know how boys say girls give them cooties?"

Kenshin nodded warily.

"Well he won't get cooties. If he as much as looks at anyone with sex on his mind, he'll think his dick will fall off."

Kenshin stared at her for a moment.

'Nasty little thing aren't you?'

"Kenshin?" Kaoru murmured. "Thanks for the shield and all but… Get. Out. Of. My Head. Now. Thank you."

Later she would wonder how he was able to expand his shields to cover hers without her having taught him. Later. She wanted to get out of this place as fast as she could, take a shower and have something hot and caffeinated to drink.

She sighed, hands going to her temples and slammed her shields back into place. "Let's get out of here please." She cast a disgusted look at Zephyr. "They pick up the trash in the morning. He'll be out until then."

"Come on then," Kenshin moved once more leaving her staring after him. Vaguely she tried to think of what had happened to the leash and found she couldn't remember. It must have gotten lost during their initial dodging of Zephyr.

Funny Kaoru didn't remember Kenshin unclipping it…

It was gone anyway and she was happy for it.

She sighed and hurried up to walk beside him least they be ambushed by more idiots attempting to buy her for the night.

Kaoru twitched.

No she really did not want to repeat that experience.

Up ahead she caught sight of the car that had dropped them off and quickened her pace as much as her mismatched-in-height shoes would allow.

'Last time I ever let Megumi talk me into slut-shoes!'

Kaoru all but leaped into the car and curled up on the seat, closing her eyes.

Kenshin sat down beside her and she opened her eyes slightly only when she felt the car began to move.

"Let me give you the information before I forget." Kaoru tapped against his shields and felt them lower than grabbed her nice mental box labeled 'information from shitty mission,' and tossed it inside and withdrew.

"Didn't look at anything… too tired." She murmured, she rested her head against the glass window. It was cool against her forehead and felt good. The drunkenness had vanished – for that she was grateful – and now Kaoru was just exhausted. Something hot to drink and a shower once they got back to the compound and that'd be it for her. She wanted to sleep until noon.

She half-dozed in the car, lulled by the quietness both mental and audible. Kenshin was silent next to her and the screen of glass separated them from the driver was up and he was being quiet mentally.

She jerked awake when Kenshin prodded her shoulder.

"Mmm?" She blinked.

"We're back," Kenshin informed her and then opened the door and slipped out of the car.

Kaoru waited a moment and then got out of the car.

As soon as she closed the door the driver drove off.

Kaoru climbed up the steps and opened the door into the compound, closing it behind her silently.

There was the sound of talking in the kitchen and she followed it to find the entire team was up and waiting for a debriefing on how the mission had went.

Iizuka saw her before the others and she grit her teeth. She smacked him mentally and was rewarded to see him yelp and drop his cup of coffee. Too bad the stupid thing wasn't hot enough to scald him.

There went her hopes of getting something to drink before bed.

Kenshin could handle the debriefing. He didn't need her anyway. She'd given him the information (third rate information!) and he could debrief on the mission without her help.

She slipped into the dining room which ran parallel to the kitchen and then vanished up the stairs before someone could stop her.

She opened her door and stumbled inside.

And then to her surprise ran into someone. A pair of hands settled on her shoulders and grabbed her to keep her from falling back and thanks to the uneven height of her shoes landing on her ass.

Kaoru froze.

Male.

In her room.

Even before she could process those thoughts she found herself screaming.

"Easy!"

Kaoru reacted blindly, throwing a punch. Her hand was caught before it could even make contact. She lashed out and he dodged her knee before it could hit a very important place.

The grip on her wrist tightened and Kaoru threw another punch only to have it caught just like the first one. She screamed again as she fought ineffectively to get lose.

"Easy! Dammit Kaoru! Calm down!"

Kaoru froze, eyes widening.

She knew that voice…

She attempted to cut through the fog of panic that had engulfed her brain.

She shook her head and blinked several times to clear it. "…Sano?"

It was Sano.

What was he doing in her room?

"Wha…?" She tried to talk and found there was a lump in her throat. Her voice came out sounded choked and tear-filled. "What are you doing?"

"Megumi asked me to install a lock on your door so you could lock it from the inside," Sano explained softly, letting go of her wrists.

Kaoru stumbled back putting distance between them and rubbing at her wrists.

"I'd just finished installing it when you came in," Sano voice was soft. The look in his eyes made her look away.

"I…" Kaoru tried and stopped when she heard footsteps.

Kenshin appeared and Kaoru backed up several feet before she'd even realized it.

Her breathing had sped up and she cursed and concentrated on slowing it.

"What happened?" Kenshin's voice was soft, eyes piercing.

Kaoru could almost read the subtitles to that sentence – 'what did you do?'

She flinched despite herself.

"I…" Kaoru tried again. She eyed the bathroom and contemplated shutting herself inside of it.

"Nothing happened Kenshin," Sano's voice was still soft.

"Then why are you screaming?" Kenshin's voice was gentler than before as he directed the question to Kaoru.

Kaoru bit her lip and avoided looking at him. "I…" She couldn't seem to speak and cursed mentally. "Out of my room please." Kaoru forced the words out. "Now."

Kenshin raised an eyebrow and looked over at Sano who nodded slightly.

"Please," Kaoru said again. She hissed as she found she was trembling and concentrated on stopping it.

"C'mon Kenshin," Sano said.

He was trying to be tactful. Kaoru stifled a hysterical laugh.

Kenshin seemed to take the hint and let Sano push him out of the room more or less.

As soon as they had left Kaoru leapt at the door and slammed it shut, making use of the newly installed inside-lock.

Tears burned her eyes and she slumped down to the floor, curling up into a tight ball. At the back of her mind she could still feel Gohei.

Gohei and all the other monsters she had ever come into contact with.

She lay on the ground for several moments more fighting back tears.

Getting to her feet she shed her clothes and went into the shower, turning the water on as hot as she could stand it. She allowed herself then to cry, standing under the spray and trying to tell herself that the wetness on the face was only water.

She still didn't feel clean.


	7. Chapter 7

Once more Nightfall is rated M. It contains nasty stuff. Though nothing is graphic in this chapter it does contain some references to rape, prostitution, and various other unpleasantries. You have been warned.

Shiin

000

The night air was cool against Kaoru's face as she walked down the street. Some of the shops were still open and she could feel the faint murmur of thoughts against her shields. With a sigh Kaoru thickened them and the thoughts faded until they were inaudible to her mental ears.

She had a migraine and could no longer stand to be in the compound.

Kenshin had left two hours or so earlier supposedly for a meeting with Hiko. Takasugi and Uno had left to go to a restaurant for a dinner just for the two of them. Megumi had been called out to partner up with another team that was short a Healer and needed someone to act backup for a mission in case someone got shot or wounded in some other manner

That had left Kaoru alone with Iizuka.

Kaoru had been making herself some coffee in the kitchen – caffeine was a double-edged sword for her. It both caused and helped alleviate the pain of migraines. Kaoru loved her coffee but she had to be careful when she drank it, because sometimes the caffeine combined with incessant mental clamor of others voices would give her a migraine.

She had just settled down in the chair with her cup of coffee and a brownie (chocolate was a Psychic's best friend) when Iizuka had walked into the kitchen. He looked over at her and she gritted her teeth, suddenly becoming very interested in her coffee.

Of all the members of the Squad, Kaoru liked Iizuka the least. She would even go so far as to say she detested him.

His manner when speaking out loud to her was biting at best. He kept up a constant stream of subtle taunts and digs that had her clenching her fists so tightly it left nail marks imbedded in the skin of her palms as she struggled to refrain from breaking his nose.

His thoughts were worse.

Damned bastard just had to have a very strong mental ability. He wasn't a Psychic; just one of those rare Normals who were able to project strongly. He was strong enough to weaken her barriers and push through when he wanted to.

Which was often.

The images he projected made her think longingly of making him into a vegetable.

She shuddered at the impression of a thought that bounced off her shields, and went over to the sink and dumped out her coffee. The taste of it was bitter in her mouth and the caffeine wasn't helping her migraine. Neither was having Iizuka in the same room for that matter.

She brushed past Iizuka, taking care not to actually touch him. She hoped he didn't try to touch her. She wouldn't put it past him. If he did he'd either end up with a broken hand or a permanently broken something else; or attached to a breathing tube for the rest of his very short life.

She left the compound quickly to avoid any bloodshed.

Which was what led her to prowling around the streets in the middle of the night.

The first thing Kaoru did was head into a small café and grabbed a cup of coffee. She supposed it was coffee. It was pitch black and Kaoru didn't quite trust the contents of it. It had caffeine and that was all that mattered.

She sipped it as she walked, feeling some of the pain in her head recede. She tilted her head from side to side and heard the vertebrae in her neck pop and crackle.

Wandering over to the stores that lined the street, Kaoru window-shopped for lack of a better thing to do. She had no money on her at the moment (when had that ever stopped her?) and didn't need another stitch of clothing thanks to Megumi.

Kaoru paused in-front of a pawn shop, her breath catching.

A dainty golden locket was in plain view nestled among all the other trinkets and knickknacks of the store.

She opened the door and slipped inside.

The owner was seated on a stool behind one of the counters reading a paper and looked up when she entered. His eyes flickered over her and then he went back to reading, ignoring her.

She went over to the case where she had seen the locket and peered into it.

It wasn't the same.

She felt an odd mixture of disappointment and relief in her chest.

It looked similar but it wasn't the same.

Momentarily distracting the shop owner with a low-key mental blurring she opened the case and grabbed the locket. Slipping it into her pocket she left the store, the tinkling of the bell above the door the only thing to tell she had ever been there.

Kaoru walked a bit and then found a half-fallen down bench. She perched down upon it and pulled the locket out of her pocket. Cradling it in the palm of her hand she looked down at it and felt her throat tighten.

It did look very similar.

For a second sadness swept over her and she sighed.

She could feel memories swirling in her mind. Unearthing themselves slowly but insistently.

Kaoru let them spill free.

She undid the chain of the locket and clipped it around her neck, it settled against her chest, just over her heart.

Kaoru closed her eyes.

She remembered…

A time when Leiko had still been sane and somewhat normal….

When Ricky had been able to stick up for himself and not been a trodden little doormat.

When she had first met Dove…

000

Night was falling around her. The street lamps were beginning to flicker into life above her head. It was time to go home. The crowds were thinning; the good people of day were leaving. In their place came the night crawlers… the prostitutes, the pimps and the drug lords.

Her backpack was heavy with food. A good day's haul of stealing, and with enough food to last for a week or so, if she was inclined to be stingy.

Kaoru had just left the marketplace and was following her usual route home when it hit her right between the eyes; ripping through her brain:

'Help! Oh please help! Help! Help…' It was a voice full of terror and pain so strong the impressions were more than just mental. Kaoru could almost catch the scent of impending death.

Kaoru reeled and nearly lost her balance.

What?

Who?

The thought sending was strong.

As a telepath she could pick up most thoughts, but Kaoru had trained herself to ignore the quieter more private thoughts. Her shields kept out the vast majority and she would get echoes of the thought, the emotions it carried but not always the words.

Now she only caught a thought when it was extremely powerful – strong enough to crash through the shields she had carefully erected. Usually only when it was accompanied by frenzied emotions such as rage or fear. And this thought had enough fear in it to knock flat on her back.

Cautiously, Kaoru reached out mentally after it and her feet followed her mind; leading her to a small deserted utterly filthy alley.

Through the dimness she could make out a humanoid shape.

A girl.

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she was suddenly glad it was so dark, for it bleached the color out of everything, turning into shades of black and gray. For had there been light the only color would have been red.

The red of blood.

Kaoru stepped toward her and felt my throat constrict. God, she was just a child… She couldn't have been more than ten. Her body lay brokenly on the floor of the alley. There was a large gash across her neck.

Someone had attempted to slit her throat.

Kaoru knelt down next to her, feeling the not-quite-dry blood soak into her jeans. Gently she reached out and touched her and with contact came memories.

….A drunken father who would beat her mother…

Her hiding under the bed in the dark so he wouldn't find her…

Darkness always darkness...

Her mother shaking her awake in the middle of the night... Exactly where they were going she did not know….

Anything was better than home...

Her mother unable to find a job but unwilling to go back to her husband ….

They lived on the streets...

Her mother falling into despair and selling what money she had for drugs, until she finally overdosed….

And then she was alone… truly alone…

Alone and unprotected… Wandering the street, easy picking for anyone….

The girl meeting the man who would become her pimp...

Her first John…

And the next…

And the next…

And the next…

Until their faces blurred together so that the only impression she caught from them was the overwhelming scent of cologne and three-days worth of stubble… Large hands that touched her everywhere… The darkness that hid their faces and their teeth that flashed white as they smiled and laughed and called her 'pretty little girl'…

They were all the same, pedophiles who liked little girls….

The memories continued on, flashing through Kaoru's mind –

Night falling and the girl waiting for a client...

A police car pulling up beside her and flash of fear that she would be arrested…. Instead the man getting out of the car and raping her…

Her mind went blank as she distanced herself from him and what he was doing to her…

She was too far inside herself to notice the knife until it was too late…

Pain and red everywhere and then finally, merciful darkness sweeping over her vision….

There was nothing after that.

Kaoru pulled away feeling tears coursing down her cheeks.

A cop.

A fucking cop.

The city's finest alright.

She got to my feet knowing a cold certainty what she had to do. But first she had to get the child somewhere safe.

And there was only safe place that she could take her to.

As Kaoru was about to pick her up she noticed something glittering on the ground. Kaoru pocketed without looking at it and scooped the child into her arms. Carrying her carefully, she set out for the one place that she considered a safe haven.

The door opened after three knocks. Leiko, her curly black hair pulled back from her face with a clip poked her head around the door's edge cautiously. When she saw it was Kaoru, her caramel brown eyes widened and she quickly pulled open the door to let her inside.

"Thanks," Kaoru said as she stepped past her, the girl heavy in her arms.

The threadbare couch slid across the floor and came to a stop in front of me. Grateful for Leiko's telekinesis Kaoru gently deposited the girl on the couch.

"What's going on?"

Kaoru looked up from the couch to see Ricky lounging in the doorway.

"She's been hurt real bad. Will you go get the first aid?"

He nodded silently and disappeared, coming back a moment later with the box of medical supplies in his hands.

He handed it to Kaoru but she gestured toward Leiko. "Leiko is the one who can heal. Besides I have something I have to do.

Ricky's silver eyes regarded her warily. "What do you have to do?"

"Kill the bastard that did this to her."

Leiko sidled up and took the box from Ricky. "Give him hell, Kaoru."

Kaoru felt a cold smile spread across her face, "I intend to. Make sure that she'll be ok."

"Will do," Leiko gave me a salute. "Hunt well."

"And happily," She murmured under her breath as she left the apartment.

Finding the bastard cop was easy….

His face was seared into Kaoru's mind.

All she simply had to do was read the other minds around me until she found him. Kaoru searched for his face in the thoughts of the people around her, jumping from one person to the other mentally until she was inside the mind of a person near him.

Kaoru was determined to find him.

And find him she did.

The flashing neon sign read _Sapphire Gentlemen's Club_. It was just another name for a titty bar. Strippers and sex if you had enough money. Certainly no real gentleman would come anywhere near it.

"The city's finest alright," Kaoru growled softly.

She slipped inside with no one noticing her.

Quickly she found who she was looking for.

He was off in a corner, enjoying a lap dance from a scantily clad girl. It was the simple matter of reaching into his mind and twisting a few things here and there.

To those around him, he simply went mad: screaming bloody murder before grabbing a knife and slashing it across his throat. Poetic justice. He'd killed himself the same way he'd tried to kill the little girl.

Kaoru turned and left feeling cold satisfaction. "You got your revenge, chibi."

It was only as she was once more on my route home that she remembered the glittery thing she had pocketed. Kaoru pulled it out of my pocket and saw what it was under the glow of an overhead street lamp. It was a simple gold locket.

She turned it over in her hands and saw a name was etched on the back of it in beautiful flowing script: Dove.

Dove.

Her name was Dove.

Kaoru smiled.

It suited her.

This time the door opened at her first knock.

Leiko looked pale and drained but gave her a tight smile as she entered.

Dove lay on the couch, bandages wrapped around her neck, her chest rising and falling slightly with every breath she took.

"She'll be ok?" Kaoru asked.

"Yeah," Leiko nodded. "She'll be fine. I healed her best I could."

Kaoru smiled, "thank you." Leiko was one of the rare Psychics who had two gifts – telekinesis and healing. More than once before Kaoru had been glad for her healing powers. And today she put them to good use in saving Dove.

"Now I'm off to bed." Leiko smothered a yawn with one hand and gave Kaoru a pat on the shoulder with the other before heading into the other room.

Kaoru sat down on the arm of the couch and rested my head against its back.

Sleep came to her quickly.

They were inside a garden. Or what she took to be a garden. Kaoru had heard about them in books but never actually seen one. The City didn't have gardens; it was a place of concrete and steel with no plants growing wild or any kind of places where you could go and see flowers.

It had no gardens.

And as far as anyone could remember it had never had one. There were the few scattered places where you could go and buy flowers, but they were expensive; and Kaoru had better uses for the small amounts of money she managed to get her hands on.

But gardens were where flowers grew weren't they?

Kaoru found Dove sitting just in front of some red and pink flowers. Roses, she thought they were called.

Dove turned toward her, as Kaoru approached and Kaoru saw for the first time what she really looked like. Before the lights had been dimmed and darkness shrouding everything.

Now she could see her clearly.

Her eyes were as blue as the sky above and her hair was a deep, rich golden blond. A small scattering of freckles dusted her sky-jump nose and cheeks. She was wearing a frilly white dress and her hair was tied into pigtails that trailed down her back.

"Hello," Kaoru said softly, suddenly feeling very shy.

"Hi," she replied. Her voice was sweet and girlish… a child's voice. It suited her. Kaoru caught a quick glimpse of a pale scar across her neck. The scar was the result of her attack. She would have it for the rest of her life as a reminder.

"What are you doing here?" Kaoru asked.

"Playing with my flowers… Mama always had flowers. My favorites are the roses." She pointed toward one of the flowers which Kaoru had correctly dubbed a rose.

"She did?"

"Mmmhmm… Even when we lived on the streets... Before…" her eyes widened and she hesitated.

"Before she died," Kaoru supplied gently.

"Yes," Dove nodded. "And then I was alone. I met a bad man and he made me do things I didn't want to do..." Her voice grew distant. "I think I died. Did I die? Is this heaven?"

"No," Kaoru said softly. "I found you and you survived."

"What happened to the man that did this to me?"

"I killed him." Kaoru murmured softly. "He'll never hurt you again. He'll never hurt anyone again."

"Thank you," Dove's smiled. It was a sad smile. Bittersweet. Kaoru's heart ached to see it.

"You're welcome Dove."

Dove cocked her head to the side, "you know my name, but I don't know yours."

"Kaoru," Kaoru told her and smiled. "My name is Kaoru."

"Kaoru?" she rolled the vowels around in her mouth as if tasting them. "It's pretty."

"Thank you."

Dove left her flowers and sat down next to her. Her arms wrapped around Kaoru's waist and she laid her head down on her shoulder. "Do you know any stories?"

"What kind of stories do you like?" Kaoru asked her.

"Ones with a happy ending," she answered.

"I think I know one or two," Kaoru murmured, thinking.

"Tell them to me." She demanded.

Kaoru grinned at her, "okay."

She snuggled against her harder as Kaoru began to speak.

Kaoru told her about a girl who had, had a very bad life. But then she met a friend that rescued her from that life. It wasn't easy, they had their shares of ups and downs and good times and bad times together.

But she was happy and safe and the bad things never happened to her again. The little girl grew up to do whatever she wanted and was never far away from her friend, who acted like a guardian angel. And together they lived happily ever after.

Sometime during her story-telling, Dove had laid her head in Kaoru's lap and began to doze off.

"Did you like that story?" Kaoru asked as she finished it.

"Yes," she murmured sleepily. "I liked the girl in the story."

"I liked her too," Kaoru said.

'Because she's you, Dove, and I will do my best to make sure nothing bad will ever happen to you again. Happy endings can happen and I intend to make sure our story has a happy ending.' Kaoru thought.

And sitting in the garden with the sun shining in the sky and Dove sleeping beside her, Kaoru was certain at that moment that happy endings can happen.

000

With a sigh Kaoru closed that part of her mind and pulled herself free of her memories.

Her face was wet. Kaoru raised a hand to touch her cheek and dampness clung to her fingers.

She was crying…

Kaoru couldn't remember if she had cried for her family's deaths.

She let the tears fall now and didn't try to stop them.

There was a brush of foot against the pavement and her head snapped up.

Kenshin.

"What do you want?" Kaoru's voice sounded choked and she snarled at it.

"What are you doing outside?" He asked.

"Nothing," Kaoru snapped, she ducked her head, bangs falling to cover her eyes. It was dark enough that he couldn't see the tears. She sneezed and made a show of rubbing at her eyes.

"Hiko let you off your leash?" She asked.

Kenshin growled softly and she shook her head, still not looking at him. "Go away."

"It's late. Go back to the compound."

"What I have a curfew now?" Kaoru muttered.

She could hear his teeth grinding.

"Just go away," Kaoru grumbled.

"What's wrong with you?" Kenshin demanded.

"I have a migraine," Kaoru snapped.

"Is that why you're crying?"

"I am not crying!" Kaoru retorted. Then on the heels of that: "Go away or I'll give you a taste of it."

She closed her eyes, keenly aware of Kenshin's gaze on her.

A moment passed.

Kaoru could feel her migraine building. Being so wrapped up in her memories she had pushed the pain to the back of her mind. Crying had relieved some of the pain, but she was tense again and the pain had grown in response to that. Sighing she brought her fingers up to her temples and pressed gently.

She heard Kenshin shift and knew he was doing it for her benefit. He could be soundless when he wanted to. She had seen him move in silence and he was well capable of it when he wanted to be.

Kaoru opened her eyes slightly to glare at him. "I thought I told you to leave."

"I'm your commander. I outrank you. You can't give me orders." He replied.

"If I was part of the team," Kaoru answered. "But I'm not. I'm the Psychic. The tool to be used."

Kenshin didn't reply and Kaoru wanted to laugh bitterly.

"Go away," Kaoru told him tiredly.

The pain was growing she could feel her power writhing in response. Her shields were weakening. She should probably get off the streets and somewhere where the crowds were thinner, the mental noise quieter… She should. But Kenshin had told her to leave and she didn't want to and make him think she was following his orders.

Kaoru could brave a little pain if just for a bit of rebellion.

She was a Psychic.

She was not a cop.

She could never be a cop.

The pounding in her head – centering on the left side increased and she hissed through clenched teeth.

Kenshin had moved again. This time Kaoru didn't hear him and found herself yanked to her feet.

"What. The. Hell. Are. You. Doing." Kaoru ground out.

"Migraine?" Kenshin's voice was clipped.

Kaoru winced, "yes."

She tried to yank her arm out of his grasp but he didn't let go. Kaoru found herself being bodily dragged down the street. She attempted to kick his shins but missed.

Her stomach twisted and she shuddered.

Her migraine was getting worse.

"…Do you get these often?"

Kaoru blinked when she realized Kenshin was talking to her. "Sometimes…Comes with being a telepath."

"Did you take anything for it?"

Kaoru shook her head slowly, "had a bit of coffee."

"Caffeine helps?" Kenshin questioned.

"It can," Kaoru replied.

She yelped as he suddenly veered to the right without warning her.

"Let go of me! I can walk on my own two feet!"

Blinking she found them suddenly standing in front of a coffee shop. For all of two seconds and then Kenshin yanked her inside.

Kaoru looked around curiously. She hadn't been in this one before. It was dimly lit inside, but Kaoru had a feeling it was more to add atmosphere than hide things. There was a good sized crowd of people clustered around little tables and sprawled on red couches. The scent of coffee was strong in the air.

Kenshin pulled her over to a small table and pushed her in the direction of a chair. When Kaoru swung around to snap at him she found he was gone.

She located him in front of the counter ordering coffee.

Kaoru briefly considered walking out while his back was turned. Two things stopped her. He was ordering coffee – and more than likely paying for it. And the darkness of the coffee shop was helping her migraine slightly.

She sank down in one of the chairs and let her eyes close. Taking a deep breath she sighed.

She heard Kenshin return and opened her eyes.

He was carrying a tray with two cups of coffee and a chocolate muffin.

Kaoru blinked.

Vaguely she remembered telling Kenshin about how chocolate and candy in general was good for Psychics.

He'd been paying attention.

Dammit.

He set the tray down in front of her and she grabbed the cup and took a gulp. It was straight black with no cream or sugar to dilute it. It tasted horrible. But it had caffeine and that was what she needed.

She picked up the muffin and took a tentative nibble incase her stomach decided to protest.

It didn't.

"Better?" Kenshin asked.

Kaoru nodded and sipped more slowly. The caffeine was helping. She could already feel it working, minimizing and thinning the blood vessels that caused her migraine. The pain lessened bit by bit.

She took another bite of her muffin as the nausea faded somewhat.

"Better," she sighed.

Why did he have to be (somewhat) nice to her? It was easier when she could just put him into the simplified box of 'Evil Psychic Killer.'

"Do you need a pain reliever?"

"Huh?" Kaoru said in surprise.

"Rafe, the owner of the coffee shop also has a small pharmacy."

"Oh," Kaoru blinked. "No. I'm fine. No medicine."

"Certain?" Kenshin asked.

"Yes," Kaoru replied.

Don't try to be nice to me; she wanted to say to him. Because once something happens that screams 'Psychic' you'll just treat me like a Psychic again. Not a person. A tool. So don't be nice to me.

She took another sip of the coffee swallowing her words so she couldn't speak them out loud.

Kenshin picked up his own cup and Kaoru stared down at hers, rocking the cup gently back and forth so that the coffee splashed back and forth against the sides of the cup, rippling across its surface.

He was looking at her again and Kaoru scrutinized her coffee cup to avoid his eyes.

"Why were you outside at this time of night?"

"I needed some fresh air," Kaoru shrugged.

Kenshin didn't say anything and Kaoru barely refrained from sighing.

The pain had left and in its place a worn sort of tiredness filled her. The caffeine just took the pain away it didn't make her hyper. Kaoru broke a piece of her muffin off and popped it into her mouth, absentmindedly chewing.

"Thank you for the muffin," she said pushing it away once she felt she had eaten enough.

Kenshin eyed her. "You barely even touched it."

"Not hungry," Kaoru replied. "I ate earlier."

Kenshin watched her for a moment and she picked up the coffee cup and took a sip.

"I never asked you about how you manipulated your shields." Kaoru murmured, against the mug she held to her lips. "I didn't teach you how to extend them."

Kenshin's eyes flickered and he shrugged. "I just did."

"Ah," Kaoru tapped a finger against the cup thoughtfully, thinking. "Have you ever -?"

"I'm not Psychic," Kenshin cut her off.

"Are you certain?" Kaoru asked softly.

Kenshin's eyes were brittle. "Yes."

Kaoru bit her lip eyeing him contemplatively.

"I am not Psychic," Kenshin repeated, gritting his teeth.

Kaoru sighed and set her cup down, rubbing at her temples. "Then you are strongest non-Psychic I have ever met."

Kenshin's expression was cold.

Kaoru had the feeling she wouldn't get anywhere with him.

She could almost tangibly feel the denial in his voice.

Of course he'd reject anything that could be connected with him that may be considered Psychic.

He could just be an extremely strong Normal (though Kaoru was beginning to have her doubts about it). But even if he'd repressed his powers to the extent they were latent and acting without his consent it didn't explain his freedom from Wunder.

She felt her headache returning and pushed those thoughts away. She wasn't in the mood to mull over them and didn't want to have to deal with yet another migraine. One was enough for the night and she had the feeling that anything concerning Kenshin would only give her a mother-bitch headache.

It was best to leave it alone.

With a sigh she drained her coffee cup and placed it down on the table. "Thanks for the coffee," she got to her feet and pushed back the chair.

She gave him a slight nod and turned on her heel and walked out of the coffee shop, leaving him behind her.


	8. Chapter 8

Kaoru really wished there was a way for her to hate the team.

For the most part they accepted her.

After every mission (at least for the first few ones) Uno would drag Kaoru out of her room and force her to side with her and Megumi against the boys in hangman.

It got to the point where Takasugi banned the game and decided to switch to scrabble.

When that didn't work out they (Takasugi and Iizuka – later Sano joining them) resorted to Monopoly.

The theory being that Kaoru couldn't pull the answers out of their heads as she was able to do previously.

As long as Kaoru kept her Psychic-ness to a bare (useful) minimum everything went fairly well.

Takasugi tolerated her.

Uno treated her like the little sister she never had (and tried to drive her crazy. Two words: hair curlers).

Megumi was alternately snarky and caring.

Sano – well Kaoru was quite certain he'd be an only child who had desperately wanted siblings and left it at that.

As for Iizuka….

Kaoru really, really, really wanted to turn him into a vegetable. It wasn't just the near-constant stream of innuendoes and images that she caught from him… The man was one step away from the edge of crazy.

After missions he'd disappear supposedly to some brothel (Kaoru let her thoughts stop right there) and was not be seen until morning. At the back of her mind she wanted to smack them all for equating being a Psychic with being an automatic slut when they didn't as much as bat an eye when Iizuka disappeared to wherever it was he went.

Must have been because she was a girl. Bunch of hypocrites.

Iizuka was definitely a few cards short of a full deck. But at the same time he wasn't full-fledged crazy. He was crazy but not obviously so.

No… it was more the feeling she caught from him…

Somewhere, once upon a time a couple of screws had been knocked loose and they hadn't been put back in. Kaoru only wondered how nobody else saw it. Maybe they were just so used to him that they didn't notice the small stuff like that… maybe they just considered him eccentric in his own way…

It was nowhere as close to the level of Berserker-Madness… but madness was madness and Kaoru could recognize it easily.

As for Kenshin…

Dammit Kaoru really wished she could have kept him in his box of Evil-Battousai-Psychic-Killer.

He was a good Squad leader.

And after having met Kohya – Gohei's former superior - Kaoru had a brand new appreciation for what having a good Squad leader meant. (HOW exactly did that neurotic-poodle of a man even get promoted enough through the ranks to lead a Squad?).

To sum it up all you had to do was watch how the Squad interacted to understand.

They were loyal to him (Sano as well and thus his Squad as well).

He didn't abuse his power – some of the thoughts/memories Kaoru had been exposed to from members of other Squads that she had met had, had her shuddering. He let his members have their own lives and didn't interfere unless it was necessary.

Most of all he left her alone.

His motto seemed to be "leave me alone and I'll leave you alone."

Kaoru was perfectly fine with that. And to be honest, Kaoru behaved herself.

How else could you explain Iizuka still walking around and not attached to a breathing-tube?

He didn't pick on her.

Didn't single her out.

And probably most importantly didn't put poison in her food (Takasugi and Uno couldn't cook anything that was wasn't freeze dried, Megumi's skill was with a medicine cabinet and mortar not a kitchen stove, no way in hell was she touching anything Iizuka made – and her skills weren't sufficient to make anything other than toast and maybe reheated beans or perhaps scrambled eggs).

Yeah the only food she was willingly eating (and able to keep down for that matter) was Kenshin's.

So she was being fed, clothed (courtesy of Megumi) and sheltered.

They hadn't made any headway into looking for who had killed her Family but Kaoru could be patient for a (very) little while longer.

She could almost be happy…

And that's when the Psychic side of her decided to rear its head and bring everything back into sharp focus.

Kaoru didn't let herself be fooled. She knew her situation. She knew what she was and what she was doing. She was Psychic living with a bunch of Police.

000

"Shit," Kaoru muttered under her breath and shoved her hangs deep into the pockets of her trench coat. The tremors had started only a few minutes before. Kaoru narrowed her eyes and tried to calculate exactly how long the mission would last before they got too bad and she ended up seizing.

If it went quick (really, really fucking quickly) she might be able to get back to the compound take her Wunder and curl up on the floor and wait for everything to blow over.

"Come on…" Kaoru growled. "When is the prick going to show?"

"Be patient," Takasugi's growled back.

Kaoru snorted as she noticed him fidgeting.

"Hate child molesters," Uno hissed. "Can't we just grab the bastard and haul him off to jail?"

"We need to get the girl that he has with him," Kenshin's face was tense. He turned slightly toward Kaoru. "You know what you have to do?"

Kaoru nodded shortly, "yeah… wipe her memories…" She didn't want the poor kid to have to remember what she'd gone through for the rest of her.

"And then we return her to her parents," Megumi said softly.

"That's the plan."

Kaoru closed her eyes and tensed. "Bastard's coming." God his thoughts were filthy. Creep had a Lolita-Nymphet complex and she felt her stomach turn at some of the contents of his mind.

Absolutely disgusting.

She'd need a long cold shower afterward…

"Fan out," Kenshin instructed.

They nodded and did as they were told.

They were all wearing black clothes for this mission.

No bright glaring red police uniforms.

Kaoru had kept her trench coat on for stubbornness' sake.

She wasn't a cop.

She wasn't about to be confused with a cop.

They split off into three groups with two people each: Uno and Takasugi, Megumi and her, Kenshin and Iizuka.

000

Kaoru let part of her mind open and tracked the thoughts of the others in the Squad. All were focused on the mission. Even Iizuka's thoughts for once were devoid of his usual perverse ideas.

Takasugi and Uno darted ahead, racing along the rooftops in case they needed to cut of his escape route to the front. Kenshin and Iizuka were at their backs ready to take him down if he got past her and Megumi.

The creep's thoughts made her skin crawl. Luckily he hadn't done anything to the little girl – yet. But he had plans. Oh he had many, many plans and surprises in store for her.

Kaoru ground her teeth together in frustration. He wasn't going to touch the child. She'd make him chop off his own fingers before he even got the chance.

She caught sight of him up ahead and immediately sped up. Megumi murmured a word of caution but Kaoru barely heeded it. She wanted this mission over and fast. Her hands were shaking and she balled them into fists tight at her side.

Quickly…

Before she lost control and went into a full-fledged Wunder-withdrawal attack.

The creep paused. Kaoru could see his head moving, scanning the area. He turned toward them and that's when she struck, letting her power lash out like a whip.

His knees buckled and he fell to the ground unconscious.

"Got him."

Megumi was hissing softly in disapproval. "You weren't supposed to do that."

"We don't have time," Kaoru murmured. She didn't have time. "I can just pull where he left the girl out of his mind." She shoved her hands deep into her pockets as the tremors spread upwards.

She heard footsteps behind them and turned.

Kenshin was scowling at her. She fought the urge to flip him off or something of that manner. She was going through withdrawal and it sure as hell wasn't helping her temper any. If she smoked she'd be wanting a cigarette desperately right now…

"She's in the third house." Kaoru told him before he could start yelling

His eyes were narrowed but he gave a short nod.

There was a flicker of movement overhead and Kaoru saw Takasugi and Uno take off in the direction she had indicated.

Megumi walked over to the downed creep and checked his pulse.

"He'll live," Kaoru muttered.

"Just making sure," Megumi replied. They quickly handcuffed the bastard and left him where he had fallen. Kaoru tweaked a few things in his head to keep him unconscious and fought the urge to do some permanent damage.

With that done, Kaoru went over and sat down next to the wall and tucking her knees under her chin she wrapped her arms around her legs. She closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing in an effort to calm the tremors down and delay her need for Wunder as long as possible.

Pulling inward she put up her shields once again and tried to relax.

She didn't know how much time passed but she heard Uno and Takasugi approach. Uno was holding a small girl with curly brown hair who couldn't have been more than eight in her arms. Kaoru felt her stomach clench. Her head was starting to pound.

Uno crooned softly to the little girl and found a spot and sat down with her, holding her in her lap and humming softly to her.

"Are we done now?" Kaoru asked.

"Not yet," Kenshin replied. "We have to wait for the retrieval squad to get here."

"How long will that be?" Kaoru asked.

"I don't know," his voice was curt. Why was she asking stupid questions?

"The compound isn't that far from here," Kaoru murmured. She could make it if she hurried very, very quickly. "Can I just leave?"

"Out of the question," Kenshin snapped.

Shit.

Kaoru wanted to scream.

"Kenshin," Kaoru murmured. She hissed as her head began to hurt worse than before, and the tremors speeding up and working their way up her arms. Everything was starting to accelerate. "I need Wunder."

"Mission isn't over," he replied. The look he gave her made her bare her teeth.

"I need it." Kaoru said shortly. She clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering and wrapped her arms tightly around herself.

"Mission still isn't over." Kenshin repeated.

Kaoru eyed the little girl curled up in Uno's arms. After being stuck with a child-molester was seeing a cop hand out Wunder to a needy Psychic really going to scar her that much?

"I can't wipe her memories if I'm incapacitated."

"Wait until the mission is over." Kenshin snapped.

'Filthy addict.' The thought forced its way through her weakening shields.

Kaoru couldn't tell who said it.

"Fine," she snarled, shoving herself to her feet. "Have fun while my brains dribble out of my ears and I start seizing –". Any more of her tirade was cut off as her knees buckled, sending her crashing to the ground.

Everything she'd been trying to hold at bay broke through the dam she'd erected and flowed over her.

"Shit!" she cursed and attempted to pull her seizing body into a tight knot in an effort to get it under control.

'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!' Pain rode the edges of her seizures. It always hurt when she had them but this time the pain was worse. It went searing along her nerve-endings and twisting her stomach making her feel sick. She shouldn't have tried to wait it out as long as she had… She shouldn't have tried to suppress… She shouldn't have taken the mission in the first place…

Vaguely she could feel someone pinning her down in effort to keep her still.

She thought it was Takasugi he was the only one had the muscles in the Squad to effectively do so.

"Give. Me. Wunder." Kaoru barely avoided biting down hard on her tongue.

Her shields were breaking at the pain. She could hear the little girl's thoughts becoming frightened and scattered.

At any other time Kaoru would have attempted to soothe her or fill her mind with happy things. She didn't trust her power right now. She didn't want to chance it.

Kenshin was staring at her and she quashed the urge to give him the mental equivalent of a boulder dropping on his head.

"Please," Kaoru grit out.

Kenshin blinked and then nodded.

She didn't know where he got it. She didn't know where it came from (okay later she'd ask…).

But it was Wunder.

Kaoru swallowed automatically. Heat followed the path that Wunder took in her body, down her throat into her stomach and then spreading.

Kaoru's limbs stilled and relaxed, she sighed as the pain in her head, receded. The tremors and twitches quieted and then disappeared entirely. When Wunder worked it, it worked fast. She was grateful.

Takasugi let her sit up and got to his feet.

The oncoming rush of mania had her giggling slightly hysterically.

The sudden flip from asking to be given Wunder to suddenly sitting there and fighting back giggles had them all staring at her… again…

Kaoru closed her eyes and attempted to rein in the mania racing through her veins. She concentrated on keeping her breathing even and deep. In and out… breathe in and then breathe out…

"I…I won't be able to work with the girl." She said softly. "Give me a day or two…"

The last thing she wanted to do was go into the child's mind when Wunder-High… it would be just as bad as when repressing a seizure if not worse. Her power was still coming back under her control, having scattered at the first signs of her seizures and she wasn't sure if had enough control over it to make it work properly for what she needed to do. Her power was deadened and lowered. Her shields felt tattered when she reached out to reconstruct them. They were strained and torn and in some places ripped all together.

Kaoru mentally began patching them back together, filling in here and adding there. Pulling this back into place and straightening that out.

If she tried to erase the girl's memories and she might end up erasing everything.

She sighed and let her eyes close and tried to rein in the mania racing through her veins. She bit her lip hard to keep from giggling and the pain helped ease it. Her body ached; she knew she'd find bruises later.

Her shields roughly patched up she put them up, strengthened and tightened them and then let everything fade away.

It took twenty minutes for the collection crew to arrive. Kaoru hadn't met them before – Squad Sixty Two was the thought against her shields. She opened her eyes slightly and watched them as they bundled up the little girl and took her away. The bastard molester, still unconscious thanks to her handiwork, was simply hauled off and tossed into the back of a patrol car.

Kaoru hoped they put him in a small dirty cell with a prisoner who was both bigger and meaner than he was.

Sensing the mission was finally over; she got to her feet and walked over to where they had parked their cars. She could feel the other members of Squad Fifty Four's eyes on her and fought the urge to flip them off.

Opening the door of one of the cars she curled up in the backseat and let herself doze until they reached the compound.

000

Kaoru waited until everyone else was out of the car before getting out.

The mania had finally faded away sometime during the ride back to the compound. All Kaoru felt now was cold and drained. Her power hummed sluggishly underneath her skin and she had the urge for a nice hot cup of coffee and a something containing lots and lots of chocolate.

She wanted caffeine and chocolate and much of it.

Kaoru sighed and trudged into the house. There was the sound of shower going, Megumi she guessed from the direction. Kenshin was on the phone his expression a thundercloud at whoever he was talking – more like listening – to.

Iizuka was gone – Kaoru felt relieved that she wouldn't have to deal with him.

She could hear that Takasugi and Uno were in the dojo. Uno was beating up on the new punching-bag Takasugi had installed and her thoughts were quite vicious as she made a mental picture of the idiot they rescued the girl from and pretended she was beating the hell out of him.

Good for her. Kaoru was half-tempted to join her in abusing the punching bag.

She headed upstairs to her room where she took off her soiled clothes, flung them into a corner and changed into a blue t-shirt and black jeans. Throwing a light jacket on over it she ran a brush through her hair before going back down the stairs and shoving her feet into her shoes that she had placed against the foot of the stairs and brushed past Kenshin on her way out.

"I'm going out." Kaoru said to him as she went by. "Don't worry I'll be a good girl and be home before midnight."

000

"You messed up again idiot."

Kenshin felt the urge to grind his teeth together. It would do no good and Hiko would hear and only laugh at him.

"How stupid do you have to be?" Hiko continued. "I practically handed you the girl. She's the best thing we have to fight Psychic's with and that's how you trat her? First you let Gohei get a hold of her –"

"I didn't let him," Kenshin tried to interject.

"And then you bring her to the Red Light District – did it ever even cross your mind that she's a Psychic? A telepath at that?"

Kenshin decided it was best just to remain silent.

"Obviously not," Hiko growled. "And now she has a Wunder withdrawal episode. _In the middle of a mission!_"

Kenshin did his best not to flinch as Hiko's voice thundered through the phone line.

"What are you going to let happen next hmm?" Hiko asked.

Kenshin bristled. "I didn't let anything happen to her."

"No of course not," Hiko said sarcastically. "She asked Gohei to molest her."

"She's a Psychic–" Kenshin tried to say but Hiko cut him off.

"Irrelevant. If anything because she's a Psychic - A Telepath may I remind you – if you don't know what it is there's a thing called a dictionary, I'd advise you to look it up. Because of that she's probably more susceptible to such things."

"I was about to say. She's a Psychic and well able to handle herself," Kenshin growled.

"Who is the leader of Squad Fifty Four?" Kenshin questioned. "You are moron. She's a part of your squad. A member of your team. You look out for and take care of your team members. If that's so hard to do I could always have her transferred. Saitou's proven to be competent. Unlike you."

This time Kenshin was sure Hiko could hear his teeth grinding.

"I'm going to give you one more chance."

"That's decent of you," Kenshin said before he could stop himself.

Hiko ignored him. "Another slip up and she'll be yanked from your team and you'll find yourselves doing grunt work, rent-a-cop jobs for as long as I see fit. Which will be a very, very long time."

If that happened Uno would kill him. Grunt work – finding lost dogs and helping kids locate their parents… While Uno liked puppies and kids (to an extent) she preferred more dangerous assignments. Ones where she got to use her knives and cause a lot of mayhem.

She'd be after his head in three days and he'd be dead in a week. Less if she convinced Megumi to slip something into his food. Something she would probably be eager to do since Megumi detested children.

"Do you understand?" Hiko asked.

"Yes," Kenshin replied.

"Just so we're clear. Say 'I understand'," Hiko instructed.

"I understand," Kenshin managed through clenched teeth. Talking to Hiko always made him feel like he was five years old again. He hated it.

"Good," Hiko said. "And apologize to her."

"What!"

"Apologize to her. A simple 'I'm sorry' will suffice. And you'd better do it too because I'll find out if you don't." With that said, Hiko hung up the phone leaving Kenshin glaring and cursing at a dead phone.

000

The coffee house was dark and gloomy. Bare bulbs gave off slight light but everything else was in shadow. That was probably a good thing. Kaoru heard the faint squeak of rats in the corners gnawing on a stale donut.

She made a face and found an empty seat. All it took was a suggestion and she had herself a just made cup of coffee and a few-hours-old chocolate donut.

There was a girl sitting on a stool in front of battered looking microphone.

Her voice was a husky croon and Kaoru half-listened as she sipped her coffee.

The coffee and chocolate donut were beginning to perk her up slightly.

Chocolate and caffeine… all a Psychic needs to feel better.

Not even counting the fact that Kaoru was a girl. So it went double for her. _  
_

Kaoru tensed when she felt Kenshin walk into the coffee shop.

His shields weren't as tight as usual and Kaoru caught a growled 'Hiko,' before he suppressed it.

"Did you get sent to fetch me?" Kaoru asked without looking up. "What does Hiko say 'jump' and you ask how high?"

Kenshin's eyes narrowed and she rolled hers.

"Sit down. I'm not going to talk to you if you're going to stand there glowering at me."

Kenshin sat.

"So… what? Hiko order you to come after me?" Kaoru took a sip of her coffee.

"Yes," Kenshin replied shortly.

"At least you're honest. What a good little puppet."

Kenshin growled softly and Kaoru snorted.

"Spit it out already. If you're not glaring at me, you're acting like you're trying not to swallow your tongue. Go ahead and call me a bitch."

"Keep acting like that and I will." Kenshin snapped.

"Hiko ordering that too?" Kaoru arched an eyebrow. "Please tell me you can think on your own without him telling you do to it."

"He doesn't."

"Oh that's a relief." Kaoru rolled her eyes.

"Kenshin I know you hate me. The feeling is decidedly mutual. But I'm doing the best I can okay? You don't give me much to work with." Kaoru took another gulp of her coffee, her hand tight on the mug, the only thing keeping her from flinging it into his face.

She was sick of this.

She was so fucking sick of this.

"You are doing well…" Kenshin bit off slowly. "For a Psychic - "

"I am a Psychic." Kaoru snarled cutting him off. "I need Wunder. Would I fucking love to do without it? Oh you bet. I'm not human… I need an addictive drug to keep me from having insane seizures and dying. Oh! And at the same time it's eating away at my brain and making me crazy…Fate's not just a bitch. She's a whore too."

Kenshin hissed softly, eyes slitting. "You didn't let me finish."

"Oh go ahead finish…" Kaoru eyed her coffee mug and wondered if she could get a shot of something alcoholic into it. She felt like getting drunk. "But if all you're going to do is insult me I'm going to kick your ass out of the shop so I can finish my coffee and donut in peace."

"Not going to insult you." Kenshin's tone was almost civil and she raised her eyebrows.

"Why did you leave the house anyway?"

"I like piss-tasting coffee and rat-infested coffee shops." Kaoru said dryly. "The atmosphere is lovely here."

Kenshin blinked at her.

"It's called sarcasm idiot."

"Don't call me an idiot."

"Then don't act like one."

Kenshin shook his head and Kaoru choked on her coffee as she caught that thought.

"I do NOT sound like Hiko!"

She twitched at the thought of her in a big red cape.

"Sorry," Kenshin ground out.

Kaoru blinked, "what?"

"Sorry," he repeated.

"That's what I thought you said," Kaoru murmured.

He glowered at her and she shook her head.

She took a sip of her coffee and set it down with a sigh.

For a moment they stared at each other and then she looked away.

"You ever think it could happen?" She murmured, the tension drained out of her and she sounded tired. "…That one day the City would be a clean one? A good one maybe? A city where you don't have to kill to survive and monsters don't walk the streets?" She shook her coffee cup watching the splash of coffee against the walls of the cup, not looking at Kenshin. "I mean the real monsters. Not the monsters that you see us Psychics as."

Kenshin didn't reply and she hadn't expected him to.

Lifting her eyes up from the cup of coffee she saw that he was quiet, just watching her.

"I know you hate Psychics Kenshin," she bit her lip. "But don't you think I have just as much right to hate them – my own kind – as you do? If not more so? I lost my family to Psychics just as you did. And I've lost a lot more than you will ever because I am a Psychic."

"You lost…" Kenshin stopped. "I hadn't thought about it."

Kaoru snorted softly, "Obviously you haven't."

His eyes narrowed slightly and she gave him a faint smile. "I pity you in a way."

"Pity… me?" A confused expression flickered across his face.

"You lost everything young… you're innocence was destroyed. But… you didn't try to reclaim it. You threw blinders on yourself… Now you don't see what's beyond those self-imposed blinders. You absorbed what you were taught and didn't question it. Right or wrong… you see yourself only as doing right and anything that appears different to you is wrong."

His lips thinned and Kaoru shook her head again.

"You let yourself become a weapon…" Kaoru sighed.

"Yes," Kenshin replied.

It was the truth.

Battousai.

He was Battousai. She couldn't... shouldn't ever let herself forget that fact.

Kaori picked up her coffee cup and then set it down one she realized it was empty.

For several minutes neither of them spoke.

Kaoru sighed and closed her eyes.

"It's a sweet little lie isn't it? A pipe dream..." Kenshin finally spoke.

Kaoru opened her eyes, "what is?"

"That… one day the City could be a good one. A place without the monsters…" Kenshin's eyes were hidden by his bangs.

"How long were you on the streets after your family was killed?" Kaoru asked.

"Two months, maybe… Not long anyway." Kenshin shrugged

Two months… long enough to have fear and anger turn to hate and loathing… For loss and grief to twist a person… a child; and make them hate anything that had to do with the death of their loved one.

"And then?" Kaoru prompted.

"Hiko found me one day. Fighting off a bunch of boys who were older and stronger than I was with nothing more than a stick…"

Kaoru snorted at the mental image she got. A little dirty Kenshin with a stick in his hand facing several much bigger kids who were nearly into their teens… It was both a cute image and very sad at the same time. The look in his eyes had changed… hardened… whatever innocence he had been struggling to hold onto had vanished.

"And so you became Hiko's puppet." Kaoru said.

"No… he didn't want me to have anything to do with the Police." Kenshin murmured. "He wouldn't allow me to join the Academy… I finally ran away and joined when I was fifteen. Hiko didn't speak to me for nearly three years. When I graduated he said something about 'making me useful for once' and I was put into a Squad."

'Making him useful for something,' Kaoru shook her head. She could see him saying something like that.

He had been useful.

More than useful.

One hundred and forty eight Psychic kills.

She had no idea how many Normals…

Useful… indeed.

She raised a hand and a man walked over and set his cup of coffee down in front of her.

Kenshin's eyes narrowed.

"What?" Kaoru asked. "It's not like I'm using my powers for evil or anything. It's just a cup of coffee."

"Are you going to pay for it?" Kenshin asked.

Kaoru snorted, "No."

Kenshin's eyes narrowed and she rolled hers.

"The economy is down the toilet already. One not-paid for coffee isn't going to hurt it."

"Two," Kenshin gestured toward her other cup.

"Okay fine two," Kaoru grumbled. "They're what… five dollars a cup? And the donut is three fifty… I left the jail without my purse."

Kaoru sighed at the look on his face and raised her hand again. A man walked up and she handed him her cup of coffee and he walked away.

"Happy now?" She groused.

"Don't manipulate people," he growled.

Kaoru blinked, "I wasn't manipulating. Manipulating would be me having the entire café get up and do the Charleston."

Kenshin snorted at her words. "You're still making them do what you want."

"True," Kaoru conceded. "To an extent. No more than what you do."

He raised an eyebrow.

"You tell them what to do and they follow your orders. You're in charge; you have the responsibility for your team. That's manipulation."

"Orders aren't manipulation," Kenshin replied his voice tightening.

"Do they really have a choice not to follow orders?" Kaoru asked. "If they don't they get court-marshaled. Bunch of puppets… even you, you're not completely in control of your actions either are you?"

Kenshin's eyes narrowed and she could hear his teeth grinding faintly.

"Puppet," Kaoru said as if it proved her point.

Kenshin remained silent.

Sensing their conversation had come to a close; Kaoru got to her feet and pushed the chair into the table. "I'm going back." She paused. "You coming?"

Kenshin nodded wordlessly and got up from his chair as well.

It was dark as they walked back to the compound and neither of them spoke.

000

That will be the last Nightfall update until early September. I'm leaving for Ireland in Mid-July to visit with family and will be there until the end of August. Stuff is going to start happening in the next couple of chapters and anything I'd post would be major plot wise and it wouldn't be fair because I'd be unable to update since I will be computer less for six weeks or so.

Cheers!

Shiin


	9. Chapter 9

Kaoru soon found that her favorite place in the entire compound was the dojo.

It was quiet. Deserted more times than not and isolated enough that anyone who came up here would have to have a reason to come up here, thus she wouldn't just have someone dropping by and checking on her out of the blue.

She sighed and sat down cross-legged on one of the mats and closed her eyes needing to think.

Two weeks had passed.

And after the incident with Sophie she had been on one mission.

Kaoru was quickly learning that whenever Iizuka appeared with a black envelope in his hand that bad things were soon to happen.

The mission they had been assigned hadn't involved a Psychic this time, Kaoru was grateful for that.

Instead this mission had involved a low-level cocaine dealer who getting a bit too full of himself and if the police didn't take him down the other drug dealers would. They had no desire for a full-blown war to hit the streets so they had decided to take him out before he became an even bigger headache.

He had been at a meeting with some of his goons when they had ambushed him.

Battousai had cut through his opponents as if they weren't even there. Megumi's throwing darts had been a hundred percent accurate, dropping her opponents before they even got within ten feet of her.

Kaoru had lost count of how many knives Uno had made appear and thrown. Takasugi had been covering her back with his nagamaki. Iizuka had been firing off shots and Kaoru had half-expected to end up with a bullet in her.

Stupid pervert just had to be a crack shot also…at least when he wasn't confronted with telekinetics who could stop bullets with just a thought.

She had been dealing with her own bunch of goons and part of her was glad that they didn't offer to help. All it took was a mental twist here and there inside of their minds and then they were knocked out, or dead for the nastier ones.

They preyed on the weak… and Kaoru had been weak… had been one of the weak for so long that she still remembered exactly how it felt to be powerless against those who could kill her with out remorse or just because it was fun.

Dove…

No child should have gone through what Dove had gone through.

And as much as it annoyed her Kaoru was finding herself developing a grudging respect for the Police…

Police didn't just fight Psychics – they fought the drug lords and pimps and all the other bottom feeders of the city. The ones that hurt the defenseless and caused pain and chaos to all around. To have Psychic included in that cheerful list was just another example of how society thought of them.

When Kaoru had finished up with her group of bad guys, she had turned to find that Kenshin had the ringleader on the floor with his katana at his throat. The man had been shaking and pale, pleading and babbling for his life.

Kaoru had no doubt Kenshin would have killed him right then and there but they had orders to take him in alive.

Kaoru had then gone into the mind of the ringleader and knocked down the barriers he had formed in there to forget whatever information they had needed to get. Now all they had to do wait for the Retrieval team to come and transport him to the nearest holding facility to be questioned and tortured if need be.

Kaoru thought it would have been better for them to just let her pull the information out of her mind and give it to them but it seemed they didn't trust her that much yet.

Whatever.

The other team had arrived soon after and taken the leader away.

There had been enough cocaine in his system to affect her. His thoughts had been barely coherent and the brush of his mind against hers had been sickening. Kaoru felt the repercussions of it the second she pulled free of his mind.

She began to feel twitchy and irritable and light-headed in a way that she knew was very, very bad. Wunder was one thing. She knew the drug, she knew what to expect with it. When she went into the minds of other Psychics she wasn't affected.

Cocaine was a totally different matter entirely. Alcohol also, and Kaoru had enough experience with that to know she didn't care for the effects it had on her. Didn't care for the effect of either of them on her… If she was given the choice between the two she'd chose none of them.

So to get out some of her aggression and attempt to calm down, she had fled to the dojo as soon as they had arrived back to the compound.

Takasugi had a punching bag installed a while back and pounding it was just what Kaoru needed.

000

Kaoru ducked as the punching bag swung back toward her and spun a high whip-kick into it, connecting solidly with the bag. She then threw a cross-jab and felt a grin of satisfaction spread across her face. There was nothing like beating up on something that didn't complain and wouldn't quit on you.

"You fight like a street fighter."

Kaoru tensed.

She hadn't even heard him come up.

How the hell was he so quiet?

"Where do you think I learned to fight?" Kaoru snapped, "The streets of course."

Kenshin snorted softly and she threw a glare at him.

"Sano fights like that anyway and you don't have a problem with him." Kaoru retorted.

"Sano has the weight and muscle to make his style effective." Kenshin pointed out.

Kaoru's eyes narrowed. He was right damn it.

"Why do you care anyway?"

"Because you need to be effective," he replied.

"I am effective." She snapped. She was a weapon to him. What did he want an even deadlier one?

"You lack finesse."

"I get things done." Kaoru answered.

"And what if you come up against someone stronger than you? Someone who has shields up so tight and strong that you can't just reach into their mind and blow it to pieces like you always do?" Kenshin's eyes were dark. "What will you do then?"

Kaoru's throat suddenly felt dry.

'What if I have to fight you?' She thought. 'I don't know who would win…'

"Fight like hell anyway." She resumed beating up on the punching bag with a swift chasse followed by a strike combination.

She could feel Kenshin's eyes on her and pointedly ignored him.

Kaoru could practically sense the annoyance radiating off him in tangible waves, as she continued to ignore him and beat up the punching bag, using some of her rougher and dirtier kicks and punches on it. She focused on a certain section of punching bag and pretended it was his face.

He snarled softly and she didn't even see him move before he had grabbed at her wrist. She spun reacting instinctively, a punching flying before she even realized what she was doing.

She growled when she found he had caught her fist in his other hand. She kicked and he dodged, twisting so that he lined up with her and then Kaoru found herself flipped onto her back.

"Get up." Kenshin said releasing her and stepping several feet away.

Kaoru hissed at him and jumped to her feet her entire body tense. Suddenly she charged and attacked with a flurry of kicks and punches.

Kenshin flowed around her attacks and the look his eyes – mocking - infuriated her.

She tapped into her powers and felt a grin spread across her face as she sped up; her attacks coming faster.

A crimson eyebrow rose and impossibly Kenshin began to match her speed while dodging her attacks at the same time.

'The fuck?' Kaoru thought in disbelief. 'He shouldn't be able to do that!'

He took advantage of her brief moment of startlement to sweep kick her feet out from under her.

Kaoru hit the ground with a thump and a litany of curses.

"Get up."

Kaoru glared at him and pushed herself to her feet.

"Shift your weight back and under you."

Kaoru blinked, "huh?"

"You have no control of your body. You're just charging and attacking. If you were half-way balanced you would have been able to catch yourself and recover."

Kaoru blinked again but did so.

"Good," Kenshin nodded. "Now throw a punch."

She did so and he hissed softly in disgust.

"That isn't a punch. That's 'fling all my body weight and hope my fist connects with whatever I'm intent on hurting'."

Kaoru's eyes narrowed and she ground her teeth together to keep from biting his head off with a retort.

"You don't have the weight or muscle to make that effective." Kenshin told her.

"You're not much bigger than I am." Kaoru growled.

"I know my strengths and my weaknesses." Kenshin replied. "I don't rely sheer muscle alone to save me."

"You're fast." Kaoru grumbled.

"That's part of it." Kenshin agreed. "I use my speed and centrifugal force. I'm faster than my opponents and I use their slowness and size against them."

Kaoru nodded, she had seen him do that.

Kenshin raked his bangs out of his eyes and Kaoru fought the urge to fidget at his sudden close scrutiny of her. "You don't have a weapon do you?"

"No," she said. He already thought of her as a weapon. She had never been given one. "You're actually going to give me one?" 'Without fearing that I'll attack you in the middle of the night with it?'

"Depends if we have anything to suit you," Kenshin muttered. "Gun?"

"No," Kaoru said automatically. Guns were Iizuka's weapon. She didn't know how to use one and she'd be stuck with him to learn it.

She vetoed throwing darts and knives which were Megumi and Uno's weapons. Kaoru's aim was not nearly as accurate as theirs and she'd end up killing someone through sheer accident.

Now if she killed Iizuka on the other hand…

Kaoru put a lid on those thoughts.

Kenshin walked over to the weapons rack soundlessly and began scrutinizing the row of neatly laid out weapons closely. He looked over at her once or twice and she did her best not to fidget.

"Come here," he said.

'Since when am I a dog?' Kaoru grumbled mentally and stalked over to him. "What?"

"Pick something."

Kaoru blinked, "pick… something?" She echoed.

"Yes." Kenshin's voice was tight and she repressed the urge to stick her tongue out at him.

"Why?" She wanted to know. "Why are you giving me a choice instead of just throwing something at me?"

"Because it'll be easier for you to learn if you have a natural affinity for your weapon," the tone of his voice told her that his patience was stretching tight.

Kaoru stifled a grin, now that just made her want to aggravate him all the more…

"Okay," she agreed cheerfully. She walked over the rack of weapons and looked at them closely, dirk, glock, quarterstaff (who the hell used that anyway?), zanbatou (no way in hell could she even lift the damned thing), kunai (nope her aim was horrible), garrote wire…

Now that had possibilities…

Nah, Kaoru nixed it. She'd have to more up close and personal with her enemies than she'd like.

Hmm… tanto knife? No, that fell under the realm of 'too up close and personal.'

Well that only left a katana.

"I'll take this," she picked up the katana and turned around to face Kenshin grinning.

He blinked slowly at her. "Katana?"

"Yep," Kaoru smiled. "It's shiny and pointy."

She heard Kenshin mutter something under his breath and did her best not to snicker.

Now if she kept annoying him perhaps he'd leave and she could back to pummeling her punching bag in peace.

No such luck.

"Fine," Kenshin's tone was resigned.

"You were hoping I'd pick the garrote wire weren't you?" Kaoru asked. No training there, just loop it around the enemies neck and pulled tight until you either broke his neck or he suffocated to death.

Kenshin didn't reply and she blinked as he stepped toward her. "You're holding it wrong," he touched her hand shifting her grip on the hilt. He gave the barest nod then stepped back. "Swing."

Kaoru nodded and swung as hard as she could.

She heard Kenshin sigh softly and the expression on his face was tightly controlled. "I've seen worse…"

"Is this a good time to point out I've never handled a sword before?" Kaoru asked.

"You look like it," was Kenshin's remark and she glared at him.

"Sorry I wasn't born with a sword in hand knowing to how kill people with it," Kaoru grumbled. She swung again and heard the breath hiss between his teeth.

"How do you learn?"

Kaoru blinked, "what?"

"There are three learning styles: visual, audio and kinesthetic tactile," Kenshin told her. "How do you learn?"

Kaoru blinked again, "pardon?"

"Do you learn by looking at things?" Kenshin asked.

Kaoru shook her head, "um… no I don't think so." She'd seen Kenshin using his sword enough that if she did learn that way she'd definitely be doing better at this than she was. At least that was what she hoped.

"Audio?"

"Learn from someone telling me?" Kaoru asked.

Kenshin nodded.

"No…" Kaoru murmured.

"Kinesthetic?"

"What's kinesthetic?" Kaoru wanted to know.

"Touch."

Kaoru's eyes widened. "Nope, definitely not that."

She saw something like relief in his face and bit down on her tongue. Poor baby having to touch the icky Psychic. She should have said yes just for the putting-Kenshin-through-Hell factor. Drat, too late now.

So much for her goal of getting Kenshin to flee the room so that she could finish her workout in peace… He actually seemed to want to teach her. Kaoru didn't know if she should be pleased or annoyed.

"So how do you learn?" Kenshin asked.

Kaoru was proud of him. He wasn't twitching or trying to bang his head against a wall.

Yet.

"I… usually just pull what information or skills I need out of a person's head." Kaoru admitted softly.

That was a definite twitch.

"So you…?"

"Yep," Kaoru nodded. "I go into someone's head and pull out their knowledge on how to do something and learn it that way."

"I see," Kenshin mused softly.

"Mmm," Kaoru said noncommittally glancing down at her reflection and admiring the shine of the blade. For something so deadly it was very pretty.

"Is that the only way you learn?" Kenshin asked after a moment.

Kaoru shrugged, "only way I know how I guess."

"So you have to get into my head?"

"Don't sound so happy about it," Kaoru rolled her eyes. "I learn quickly that way anyway. Would you rather prefer to be spend hours upon hours teaching me how to swing a blasted sword or just let me riffle through your mind and find out how to do it myself?"

Kenshin stared at her for a moment.

"Tough question eh?" Kaoru asked. 'Or you could not teach me and let me go along my merry way. That's option number three.

"Ah," Kenshin said.

She thought she heard him mutter something that sounded like Hiko. Hiko training her? Kaoru didn't think she'd be able to survive it. He more thank likely wouldn't let her anywhere near his mind and even if she somehow managed to get into his head (he had the strongest shielding out of any Normal she'd ever met) Kaoru doubted she could find any information. His mind gave her the impression of a forest, dark and shadowy and very easy to get lost in.

"Fine," he bit off the word and Kaoru's eye widened.

"You're letting me into your head?"

"Don't sound so happy about it," he tossed her words back at her and she grit her teeth.

"Oh I'm thrilled… I get to poke around in your head; it's completely and utterly made my day." She retorted.

"Well?" He said.

"Let your shields down," Kaoru told him. "Otherwise it's going to hurt you when I knock them down in order to get into your head."

He nodded and she felt his shields lower and then dissolve. His thoughts were tightly controlled, nothing came barreling at her and for the most part they were quiet. A soft murmur that only became distinct if she touched them.

Kaoru let her own shields lower and vanish. Aside from Kenshin, she could hear Megumi and Uno and Takasugi… Iizuka. Kaoru shuddered.

"Let's get this over with," she muttered and stretched out mentally toward him. She felt a brush of resistance and then there were no more barriers. She was inside his head. Kaoru mentally opened her eyes and found herself in… a room of sorts.

It was dark and shadowed but the aura it gave off was lighter than she would have expected. The wood under her feet was some kind of dark shiny wood almost black in color and she took a step and nearly found her feet slipping out from under her.

Gritting her teeth, she padded carefully through the room. It was remarkably sparse with only a futon pushed into a corner, a large desk with chair and bookcase. A stand held paired katana and wakizashi. The air smelled of ginger and another lighter scent, she thought was vanilla but couldn't be sure.

If Hiko's mind was a forest, something to get lost in, then Kenshin's was a room, dark and in strict order.

Okay… Kaoru straightened her shoulders and went to the desk. She didn't want to spend any more time than she had to. She touched the knob and yelped in surprise as a shadow wound itself around her wrist, squeezing tightly.

'Stop it,' she hissed. 'I have permission to be in here. Grudging permission but it is still permission.'

Another shadow detached itself and loops itself around her ankles in much the manner a cat would. She tensed as it worked its way up her body and kept herself carefully still. Instead of a cat she was now reminded of a snake and the gentle pressure it exerted as it wrapped itself around her told her that it could squeeze her and shatter her to pieces if it so choose.

'Least he took it to heart when I told him to make mental defenses,' she grumbled.

It had now reached her face and she sucked in a breath screwing her eyes shut. 'Great it's not going to squeeze me to death it's going to smother me!' Trapped as she was there wasn't much chance of her making a weapon.

'Why is it that every time I'm in his head I die?'

The almost feather-light touch had her eyes snapping open in surprise. The shadow traced the contours of her face almost curiously.

'Yes it's me, Kaoru. You know me. You don't like me. But you do know me.' Kaoru told it.

She got the briefest feeling of assent from it and then it unwound itself from her and vanished.

Kaoru let out a shaky breath. 'Okay…'

She turned back to the desk. 'Let me find what I need to find and then get out of here.'

She opened the desk and quickly found what she was looking for. Images flashed through her mind as she touched the papers and she nodded and then closed the desk drawer carefully. She had gotten what she needed; now it was time to go.

Pulling herself out of his mind she raised her shields once again and opened her eyes.

The sword in her hand felt familiar. She could use this… she knew how to use this.

Kaoru gave an experimental swing and felt a grin stretch across her face. Almost without realizing it she fell into a kata the movements coming fast and graceful, the blade making a whistling noise as it cut through the air.

She paused suddenly. She had forgotten completely about Kenshin…

He was watching her soundlessly; she could feel his shields having been put back into place once more.

"So that is how you learn?" He murmured.

"Yep," Kaoru nodded.

"Well you look like you know how to use it."

"Better than I did before," Kaoru agreed.

"No argument there," Kenshin snorted.

Kaoru bristled slightly and bit her tongue to keep back a sharp retort. She watched curiously as Kenshin went over to the rack of weapons and picked up another one of the katanas placed there.

"Let's see if you actually do know how to use it," he said turning toward her again.

Kaoru's eyes widened, "fight you?"

"Spar," Kenshin said.

"Okay," Kaoru nodded and adjusted her grip on the katana. They circled one another balancing carefully on the balls of their feet. Kaoru watched him carefully for any change in tension or posture or shift in weight.

There…

She brought her katana up just in time to block, the force sending her skidding back over the polished dojo floor and the shock of it riding up her arms. She gritted her teeth but found herself unable to do anything initially other than block.

He was in his element now. Sword in hand and gliding over the floor so quickly that he nearly a blur. He's so fast… he shouldn't have been able to be that fast.

He wasn't pulling his punches, Kaoru didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. She hoped it was a good thing.

With a grunt she managed to wrench herself away just enough to give her a breather. It was the break she needed to tap into her power and felt the world around her shift. Becoming all at once clearer and hazier, both sharper and less distinct at the same time.

There.

She sidestepped and heard Kenshin's blade whistle past her ear. Her sword came up, connecting solidly with his. She heard the faintest whisper of Kenshin's thoughts and anticipated his move, forcing him back.

Now…

Kaoru's power hummed underneath her skin and as they danced around each other thrusting and parrying, attacking and counter-attacking, Kaoru felt her shields lowering and Kenshin's as well.

Kaoru felt a grin stretching across her face.

She could keep up with him, furthermore she could match him.

She dodged his last attack, the world at the corners of her eye a white colored blur. The hum of Kenshin's thoughts filled her head and she used it to her advantage, predicting his movements and countering them before he even made them.

She brought the dull edge of her katana's blade down across the hand holding his own katana. It dropped from his grip and hit the ground that with her heightened senses was almost deafening. A split second later Kenshin followed as she swept his feet out from under him.

"Think I know how to use it?" Kaoru asked standing over him.

Kenshin nodded soundlessly and got to his feet, picking up his fallen katana.

"You don't sustain your shields as you fight," Kaoru told him.

"Oh?" Kenshin's fingers flexed around the hilt of his katana.

"Mmm," Kaoru nodded. "And you think before you attack. You have everything planned out in your head before you execute it. It makes you easy to read."

Kenshin snorted softly. "So I need to keep my shields up?"

"And don't think as much," Kaoru said. "Act and react." She gave her katana a tentative swing. "Try this again?"

Kenshin nodded.

Kaoru's grip on her katana tightened and she let herself fall into a crouch she had seen Kenshin use prior to an attack many times and barely fought back a grin at the brief look of surprise that flashed across his face. "I learn fast," she reminded him.

"You do," he conceded.

Kenshin raised his sword and a split second later the space where he had been was empty.

Kaoru was a heartbeat behind him.

He was better this time around, Kaoru noted. His shields stayed up longer than they had before, but all she had to do was wait him out and let his shields fall then it was the simple matter of using his thoughts and planned strategies against him and he once more ended up on the floor with his sword skittering away from him.

A part of her was cheering that she was managing to get the better of Battousai. The look on his face was annoyed and Kaoru fought the urge to snicker.

"Stop pouting," she told him.

If looks could have killed…

Kaoru sighed and set her katana down and rubbed her arm which was starting to ache. She surveyed the dojo and shook her head. One of the wall mirrors was cracked from when Kenshin had crashed into them at once point. The leg of Kaoru's pants had a long rip from where she hadn't quite managed to dodge his blade.

She could already feel the bruises forming.

Kenshin hadn't fared much better. His hand was mottled from where her blade had struck him and he probably had just as many, if not more bruises than she did. Kaoru didn't feel like comparing them right now.

Still Kaoru found that she had had more fun than she could remember in a long time; to be able to push and test herself against someone this strong. Kenshin didn't hold back and she didn't restrain herself either. They'd both wake up dead tired and bruised the next day but it didn't matter.

"You're still thinking before you attack." Kaoru said. "Your shields are staying up longer and are strengthening but your thoughts are still very easy to catch and read."

"So how do you suggest that I fix that?" There was a snap to his voice and Kenshin's eyes were hard as he pushed back his bangs and wiped the sweat from his brow.

Kaoru glanced up at the clock above the dojo door noting that almost two hours had passed since they had started sparring. When they finished up she was going to take a long hot shower and a nap. She was tired but it was a good tired.

"You want my suggestion?" Kaoru asked.

Kenshin raised an eyebrow.

"We do a mind-meld."

"A what?"

"It's um…" Kaoru tried to choose her words carefully. "We communicate mind to mind. I'm in your head and you're in mine."

Kenshin merely stared at her, the edges of his mouth tightening.

"Just a suggestion," Kaoru shrugged. She didn't relish the aspect of having Kenshin floating around in her head any more than he probably wanted her to be in his. "Or we could go back to beating the crap out of each other." She gave him a smile that contained too much teeth. "You don't seem to be doing so well at the moment."

With the looks Kenshin was giving her, Kaoru was already in her fourth life.

"Let's try it."

Kaoru blinked, "come again?"

"Sooner or later I will come across a telepath who will be stronger than my shields," Kenshin crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a level look. "And knowing how to fight effectively against one will be useful."

Kaoru wrinkled her nose.

Logic, of course the jerk would use logic.

"Okay," she nodded. "Think of the mind-meld as a bridge of sorts. I can read your thoughts and you can read mine. There are no barriers." She felt a curl of unease in her stomach and quashed it. He'd decide not to do it and back out. At least that she was she hoped he would do.

"How did you learn how to do that?" Kenshin asked.

"It was useful for when I was… where I was before. When I lived on the streets." Kaoru said. "Easy way to keep track of my family. That kind of stuff." Look out and warn others of approaching police as well, but she didn't tell him that.

"I see," Kenshin's expression was thoughtful.

"Yeah," Kaoru fought the urge to fidget.

Kaoru was a telepath. She didn't mind being in other people's minds. Having them in her mind however was a whole different story. Carefully, Kaoru lowered some of her shields leaving the inner ones up and intact.

Reaching carefully toward Kenshin she gave a gentle 'knock' against his shields and felt him lower his. Keeping her own mind carefully blank she let part of her consciousness sink into Kenshin's. The feelings she got from him were a mixture of wariness and resignation, curiosity and annoyance. He didn't exactly like this but then again neither did Kaoru.

The only thing keeping them from not doing this was that they were both too stubborn to go turn back and say forget it.

Keeping a careful leash on her thoughts Kaoru struck at him. He blocked it and she grinned. No thought there. Just a reaction. She gave him a brief nod and then resumed, striking at him her blows coming quicker and quicker each time.

He kept his mind clear and thoughts restrained. Kaoru didn't know if it was because she was in his head or if he was just a naturally insanely fast learner. Kaoru didn't mind either option though the latter one irked her somewhat. Couldn't he have been just a bit slower to catch on? She wanted to knock him on his ass one more time just for the hell of it.

There was a quicksilver streak of a thought that he snuffed before she could catch and read it and Kaoru suddenly found her feet swept out from under her. She hit the mat hard, the breath rushing out of her.

Kenshin's hand was around her neck and she froze, keeping carefully still.

Lifting her eyes carefully to his face, Kaoru saw that his eyes had narrowed and the hand around her throat tensed ever so slightly.

"Kenshin," Kaoru said carefully.

He didn't seem to hear here.

"Battousai."

Something in his eyes flickered.

"If don't let the fuck go of my neck I am going to break your hand and then scramble your brains so you spend the rest of your life drooling."

Kaoru suddenly found it hard to breathe as his hand tightened.

Psychic…

The word whispered through her mind.

Police, she countered. Puppet.

Drug addict.

Junkie.

'You try to kill me and I'm taking you with me,' Kaoru gave him a mental whack to prove her point. 'You can't rip my throat out before I do some serious damage to your brain.'

There was a flicker of consideration and Kaoru felt his hand loosen.

She sucked in a much needed breath of air.

"Let go of me," Kaoru murmured softly. "I'm supposed to be working with you remember? I don't think Hiko would be all that happy if he finds out you killed me."

The barely suppressed thought she got from him confirmed it. Hiko would not be happy if she was killed. Most definitely not. And a certain red-haired Police would spend the next five years doing grunt duty just because he was an idiot.

'At least if he does kill me I can watch and laugh my ass off at him afterward,' Kaoru thought optimistically.

Now that was an almost cheery thought.

Kenshin released her and stepped away, eyes dark. There was a soft intake of breath and she could see him returning back to himself. Snapping out of the haze he was in.

Kaoru got to her feet carefully watching him the entire while. "Remind me never to spar with you again. It makes you nastily bloodthirsty."

Kenshin gave a short nod, eyes still shadowed. She could almost hear the thoughts in his head. Psychic. Kill Psychic. Kaoru. Psychic. Not Psychic to Kill. Psychic to keep alive. Useful Psychic.

Because if he tried to kill her, Kaoru wouldn't be dying alone.

She knew that with a cold kind of certainty.

Her gaze never leaving him, Kaoru stepped backwards in the direction of the door. She could feel the echoes of his mind in her head and her eyes fluttered shut briefly. Throwing up shields she pushed the last of his impressions out of her hand and let them slide into place, her thoughts and mind once more safe. Contained.

The knob of the door was under her hand and she turned it, slipping out of the dojo and closing the door silently behind her.

Authors Notes:

Whip-kick aka Fouette – a Savate (French-kick boxing) move.

Savate is a French form of martial arts (which I absolutely love and REALY need to find someone to teach me – that is like kick-boxing except they focus a lot more on your legs and feet.) For years it was considered a 'dirty-street fighting style' by people outside France (mainly England) so Kaoru gets to use Savate moves.

Chasse – piston kick also a Savate move.


	10. Chapter 10

The next few chapters are going to be where Nightfall earns its M rating. Things will be getting very bad, very dark, very fast.

Shiin

"You can't be serious," Kaoru felt her mouth go dry. "You're pairing me up for this mission with Iizuka? Why?"

"It's simple recon," Kenshin replied. "All you need to do is get information."

"But why Iiuzka and I?" Kaoru asked.

"He's been working with this informant. He trusts him." Kenshin answered.

Kaoru couldn't see how he could.

"So you just want me to dig around his brain and grab whatever information he may have been hiding from Iizuka?" Kaoru asked to clarify.

"Yes."

Kaoru fought the urge to rub at her temples. Stuck alone on a mission with Iizuka… She was half-tempted to ask if he was supposed to come back from the mission alive. She had a vague idea where they were going and shootings were common. It wouldn't be so unusual for someone to get shot and come back in a body bag.

Kaoru quashed that thought. If she kept thinking like that it'd be her that ended up in a body bag, not Iizuka.

Bad Kaoru. She wasn't supposed to kill the Police. She was supposed to be working with the idiots.

And no matter how tempting the image of Iizuka attached to a breathing tube for the rest of his life was, she knew if she actually did something to him she'd end up dead faster than she could blink.

All she had to do was keep her shields up and tight for an hour, block out his innuendoes and ignore him. She could do that. For an hour or so.

"What's the uniform for this mission?" Kaoru asked. She could do this if she wasn't showing any skin. No need to give Iizuka anymore ideas than he already had.

"Whatever you want to wear," Kenshin answered. "As long as you don't look like a cop."

"Which I already don't," Kaoru finished the sentence before he could.

He raised an eyebrow and nodded.

Okay… she could do this.

000

Kaoru kept herself pressed against the side of the car.

Being this close to Iizuka was making her skin crawl. There sooner they got back to the compound the better. His constant barrage of thoughts was giving her a headache and the content of them was making her stomach turn.

She was fighting down the steadily rising urge to twist a few things inside his head. Either that or shoot him in a very important place in an attempt to curtail his thoughts if not stop them all together.

She shuddered.

At least his informant had been decent and had information that was useful. Kaoru had gotten a brief glimpse of what she had snatched from his mind before tossing it into her little mental box and flinging the information into Iizuka's brain.

More stuff about Kanryuu.

Brief flickers and flashes of images in a jumbled heap had fluttered through her mind before she had slammed them into her little mental box. Kaoru hadn't liked what she had seen, it had been too indistinct and incoherent for her to make any sort of real sense about it, but the feeling it had given her had not been a good one.

Kaoru didn't like it but at the same time it wasn't her problem. She wasn't Police. She was just the convenient go-getter. The tool to be used to get information. She knew that. She understood her role perfectly. What they did with the information didn't concern her. It wasn't like she was a real member of the Police anyway. She didn't want to be either.

She was a Psychic.

Let Iizuka brief Kenshin.

The car rolled to a stop in front of the compound and Kaoru reached for the doro handle. She gave it a tug and felt a flicker of surprise mingled with fear as the door did not budge. It was locked.

"Let me out Iizuka," Kaoru's heart had jumped into her throat and lodged there making it difficult to swallow. The touch of a rather vile thought brushed against her shields and had her shuddering in disgust.

"Stop it Iizuka," her mouth felt dry and she refused to look at him. She could see her reflection in the window, her face pale and eyes growing huge. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing how afraid she actually was. If she confronted him he would. Kaoru sucked in a breath and tried not to shudder again as he sent another mental thought in her direction.

"Let me out Iizuka," she said again.

"What am I doing to you?" The tone of his voice made her stomach turn.

"You know what you're doing," Kaoru replied, her voice tight. She balled her hands into fists, nails biting into her palms.

"You know you like it."

"Like hell," Kaoru took another deep breath in attempt to calm herself. If she got scared or angry or lost her cool her shields would shatter. The impressions he was getting from Iizuka, were vulgar. She didn't want to experience them full-blown without her shields to take the brunt of them.

Kaoru wanted nothing more than to go inside of his head and make him never do anything again. But her own power and emotions were disobeying her. She was scared of him and her fear made her shields weak and gave her no protection against him. And she couldn't kill him. Kenshin would have her head. Kaoru didn't want to die, not until whoever had killed her family met his end. She had to stay alive, to stay on the good side of everything until she reached her goal.

Then...

Things would be different then.

She could feel her shields weakening, splintering like fragile spider web cracks across a glass surface. There was an audible snap inside of her head and Kaoru felt them stream in, a barrage of thoughts and images. She jerked in response tears in her eyes.

"Stop it," she croaked.

Her power slipped through her grasp as he reached for it. Too much fear… too much anger… disgust… She wanted to hit him, to throw up. To scream...

The image of her naked and screaming darted through her mind.

Kaoru jerked physically. Anger boiled up in her and she used it quickly to grab a bit of her power and managed a weak mental blow at Iizuka, shoving him out of her head. She flung up her shields instantly.

There was a click as the door unlocked and Kaoru grabbed the handle, opened it and flung herself out of the car and dashed into the compound in a flat out run.

Behind her she could hear Iizuka laughing and her stomach tightened, bile rising in her throat and tasting sour.

She yanked open the front door and slammed it shut behind her and then whirled around nearly colliding with Kenshin.

"What's wrong?" His eyes narrowed as he caught sight of her face, pale and tear-streaked.

"Nothing," Kaoru told him. Her voice was barely above a whisper and it took her three tries to even say the word.

"Then why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying!" Kaoru snapped. She moved to brush past him but he reached for her, grabbing her arm.

Without even thinking about it, Kaoru lashed out at him.

He released her instantly and stumbled backwards a step, hands flying to his temples. Kaoru had hit him hard enough mentally to give him a rather nasty migraine. She hoped his head exploded and his brains dribbled out his ears. It would serve him right for making her work with Iizuka.

She didn't look behind her as she continued down the hall and up the stairs into her room where she closed the door and locked it behind her.

000

A moment after Kaoru had left Iizuka strolled into the compound. Kenshin was seated at the table a glass of water and medicine bottle in front of him. Kenshin looked over at him as he entered his eyes hard and flat.

"What?" Iizuka asked.

"What happened during the mission?" Kenshin's voice was calm.

"Nothing," Iizuka shrugged. "Informant was there when we arrived, got the information that we needed and left."

"Nothing happened?" Kenshin asked.

"No everything went as it should."

"Are you certain about that?"

"Yes," Iizuka laughed softly. "What? Did the Psychic say anything?" He rolled his eyes. "Please… She's a Wunder-addicted junkie bitch. She probably sits around thinking her life is horrible and tries to think of ways to cause trouble. She should be grateful she's off the streets and we haven't killed her yet." With that said Iizuka walked out of the room in the direction of his own quarters.

Kenshin stared after him a moment, his finger tapping against the glass as he thought.

000

Instantly, Kaoru's knees went weak and she leaned against the door as she tried to remember how to stay on her feet. Her entire body began to shake and tears slipped down her eyes from underneath her closed eyelids. Another image of her from Iizuka's mind floated across her vision and she felt her stomach heave.

Kaoru pushed away from the door and stumbled into the bathroom and made it just in time to throw up in the toilet.

After her retching finished, Kaoru got to her feet and rinsed her mouth. The face that stared back at her from the bathroom mirror made her flinch. She looked horrible. She felt worse.

The remembrance of Iizuka in her made nearly made her throw up again. Damn him. She wanted to hurt him. Make sure he didn't do anything like that again to her. To anyone. But she couldn't. When she was around Iizuka, Kaoru shut down. She could neither defend herself nor strike back.

The fucking bastard knew it too.

Kaoru turned away from her reflection and toward the shower. She quickly stripped out of her clothes and tossed them into the farthest corner. She eyed them contemplatively wishing for the first time that she was a Pyrokinetic. At least for the moment. She felt filthy. If someone touches you, you can erase the evidence of it by destroying clothes. She couldn't do the same to her mind to erase the memory of it.

Kaoru shuddered again and stepped into the shower, turning the knob all the way. The water was scalding and her turned pink from the heat. Kaoru reveled in the almost-pain. She was getting clean and it was all that mattered.

"Damn him," she murmured again under her breath. Sliding down to the floor, Kaoru sat against the wall and tilted her head back so that she could take the full onslaught of the spray on her face. An anecdote from the little schooling Kaoru had received surfaced in her mind. Ancient cultures had believed that fire and water were cleansing. This was both: water and heat hot enough to burn.

She still didn't feel clean.

Damn Iizuka and damn him again.

How long she lay under the water, Kaoru didn't know. She got to her feet slowly and turned it off. The sudden absence of heat had her shivering.

Stepping out of the shower, Kaoru wrapped one towel around herself and another around her hair. She walked back into her bedroom and changed into a turtleneck and jeans. She didn't want to show skin right now, not after what she had seen in her head from Iizuka. Pulling her hair back into a high ponytail she tied it with a bright yellow ribbon. The color was cheerful and she felt her lips twitch into a smile and the knot in her stomach loosened slightly.

Sighing, Kaoru rotated her shoulders they would be eating dinner now, the buzz of thoughts against her shields were food-centric. The thought of having to sit in the same room as Iizuka and attempt to eat food had her throat closing and she felt like throwing up again.

No fucking way.

At the same time, Kaoru didn't want to stay locked up in her room either. It felt too much like she was admitting defeat.

Kaoru raised her eyes in the direction of the ceiling.

No place to go but up, it seemed.

To the dojo it was then.

It was only later with the sound of her katana whistling in her ears as it cut through the air, did Kaoru feel some of the disgust drain from her. There was nothing in the world that couldn't be cured by holding steel in your hands and going several rounds with a punching bag, Kaoru decided. Though not both at the same time.

She felt more than saw or heard someone behind her and whirled around.

"Don't do that!" Kaoru growled at Kenshin.

Her heart stopped pounding as hard when she saw that it wasn't Iizuka but she was already as jumpy as fuck and having Kenshin ghosting around was not helping her nerves. One day she vowed, she would figure out how he did that. For a human he was unnaturally quiet and he'd give some of the best Psychic's Kaoru knew a run for their money.

No wonder he had such a bloody high kill count.

"I could have taken your head off," she snapped at him.

Kenshin raised an eyebrow, "would I have let you?"

Good point, Kaoru bristled.

He still looked a bit pale and there was a muted aura of pain about him. Kaoru must have hit him harder than she had thought. She felt a slight tinge of remorse but quashed it with the memory of Iizuka.

He was damn lucky she hadn't blown his brains out his ears.

"What was wrong with you?"

"Nothing," Kaoru replied tightly. "How's the migraine?"

Kenshin's eyes narrowed, "painful."

Kaoru was impressed he was even up and walking and not curled up in a dark room drugged to the gills with pain meds.

"Nothing is wrong with me Kenshin."

"So you're just in the habit of incapacitating people for no good reason."

"It's a nasty little quirk of mine," Kaoru walked over to the weapons rack and set her katana down upon it. Less chance that she would attempt to attack him. She picked up her gloves and went over to the punching bag and slipped them on.

She could feel his eyes on her and did her best to ignore him, concentrating instead on beating her punching bag to a pulp.

'Go away!' Kaoru wanted to scream at him. 'Leave me the hell alone!'

Briefly the thought of telling him about Iizuka flashed through her mind. Kaoru killed it. No way. The Police stuck together he'd call her a liar and once more she'd be the Psychic Slut-Bitch. The bag swung back and forth with the force of her punches. Kaoru ground her teeth together.

"How did the mission go?"

"Just peachy," Kaoru replied. Why wasn't he asking Iizuka this?

"Anything happen?"

Yes.

"No, Everything went smoothly," Kaoru told him.

"So there was no trouble?" Kenshin asked.

The hell there wasn't.

"Everything went fine," Kaoru answered, her back still turned to him and concentrating on her punches. She imagined the bag had Iizuka's face all over it.

She was a big girl; she could deal with Iizuka herself. If he just happened to accidentally bang his head during the n ext mission and slip into a coma from which he would never recover, she didn't have anything to do with it.

"Anything else?"

Kenshin looked at her for a moment before shaking his head. "No."

Kaoru nodded.

"You didn't come down for dinner," Kenshin said.

"I wasn't hungry," Kaoru told him.

It true she wasn't.

Or hadn't been.

She hadn't wanted to have to sit in the same room with Iizuka. She didn't think she could have handled it. Someone would have ended up dead.

"There's some leftovers," Kenshin said.

"Who cooked?" Kaoru wanted to know.

"Uno did."

Kaoru wrinkled her nose. "I think I'll just make myself some beans and toast."

"It wasn't too bad," Kenshin said.

"Better than mine anyway," Kaoru sighed. She gave the bag one more punch and then stepped away. Her arms ached but it was a good kind of ache. Wearing a turtleneck while exercising hadn't been a good idea, the fabric stuck her skin and she scowled. She'd need another shower after this.

She turned around to see Kenshin watching her and busied herself with taking off her gloves..

"You've never cooked."

"Kitchens don't like me." Kaoru murmured. And there hadn't been much gourmet cooking on the streets anyway

"You'll pull the short straw for cooking duty someday soon."

Kaoru snorted. Was he trying to joke with her? "There are worse ways to die I suppose."

"Yes there are." Kenshin agreed.

Losing your family…

Fire…

Being ripped apart limb from limb…

Having your brain melt inside your head and you going crazy from drugs designed to keep you alive and not go crazy…

Yes there were worse ways to die.

Worse ways indeed.

'A little food poisoning won't hurt them,' Kaoru decided. "I can just stick to something simple… like spaghetti." Just plan, simple spaghetti. Kaoru wasn't sure she wanted to be adventurous and attempt meatballs.

"Sounds like a plan."

Kaoru stifled a sudden half-hysterical giggle. Was he being nice to her? It beat him trying to kill her after nearly making his brains explode inside his head. But at the same time Kaoru wanted to tell him not to bother.

He was Battousai.

He wasn't nice to Psychics.

He killed them.

Brutally and without remorse.

And after all, she was just another Psychic.

If she had any appetite before Kaoru found she had now lost it. .

She pushed her bangs out of her eyes and then started, staring at her hands.

There…

The slightest little tremor ran through them.

The second she acknowledged it, it grew stronger. Why did things always happen like that? Kaoru wondered. You don't hurt until you realize you are in pain. You don't have a Wunder-withdrawal attack until you notice the symptoms starting.

With a curse she balled her hands into tight fists.

"I need Wunder," the request came out through clenched teeth.

An eyebrow rose, "you had Wunder a few days ago."

"I know," Kaoru bit off. "I need it again. Now."

Kenshin's gaze dropped to her hands and she saw his eyes narrow.

Her arm jerked and Kaoru hissed a curse.

"I'm asking for it because I need it." She told him. "Not… not because I want it."

Kenshin gave a short sharp nod and then walked past her.

Kaoru watched him walk a moment and then let out another curse and scrambled after him.

The tremors were working their way up her arms and she wrapped them tightly around herself, walking quickly and just avoiding treading on his heels.

She'd take her Wunder and then curl up in her room with the lights out and under the covers and wait for the drug to start working. It sounded like a plan. And not a very bad plan either if she did say so herself.

They went down the stairs to the second floor and then down the stairs to the main level. Out of the corner of her eye Kaoru noticed Uno, Takasugi, Megumi and Sano playing cards at the table. They turned and watched as she and Kenshin strode past and she bit her tongue in effort not to utter another swear.

Great did everyone have to know she needed her drugs?

At least Iizuka wasn't here, Kaoru took some comfort in that.

Another of his mental images surfaced in her mind and she shuddered violently.

They turned a corner and then another one. Walking down a long hall. It was all a blur to Kaoru as she focused on walking and not letting eth steadily worsening tremors affect her balance. Pain was blossoming at the sides of her head, wrapping around her temples like a too-tight headband.

She nearly collided with Kenshin as he stopped in front of a door. Through half-shut eyes she watched him place his hand against a pad. A green light edged his palm and then the door slid open.

Kaoru waited a heartbeat before following him inside.

Lights flickered on overhead. The room was bare for the most part: a table and chairs and a desk on top of which was a rather large safe.

So that's where he kept the Wunder.

Kaoru closed her eyes and waited patiently as he spun the lock, the clicks echoing in the room louder than even the sound of her too-quick breathing.

The door sprang open with a loud creak and she opened her eyes to see him reach inside and pull out a small brown envelope.

"Here," Kenshin tossed it to her and she caught it with both hands.

"Thanks," Kaoru murmured. Opening it she tipped two white pills of Wunder onto her hand and tossed them back.

And waited for them to take effect.

Heat.

Burning and searing.

Not the gentle warmth she was accustomed to as it took effect.

Something was wrong.

This was not Wunder.

It flowed down her throat and hit her stomach like a punch. With a soft sob she doubled over, clutching at her stomach. Her body spasmed and she didn't remember starting to fall or even falling. She hit the floor with a thud, head snapping violently against the ground.

Blackness danced at the corners of her vision and she was vaguely aware of the fact that she was seizing. She couldn't feel herself seizing but she knew she was. Out of the corner of her eye she could see her arm snapping against the ground and wondered in a distant sort of surprised manner at the fact that it wasn't broken.

There was a roaring in ears that drowned out any other kind of noise. Kaoru didn't know if she was screaming. She probably was. Her throat felt raw and burned but that might have been the heat. Tears scalded her face and she felt her lips pull back from her teeth in a snarl. They felt cracked and she could taste blood in her mouth. Were her lips bleeding? Had she bitten her tongue?

Kaoru didn't know.

It didn't matter anyway.

There was a flicker of red out of the corner of her eye and she tried to turn her head to see it better. It took too much effort and so she just laid there. Was it blood? Was she bleeding?

'Hurts,' she whimpered softly.

Everything hurt. Hurt so very much. The darkness at the edges of her vision was growing thicker. Tentatively Kaoru reached for it and felt it pull at her, sucking like quicksand. It took more effort than she had to pull away and get it to release her.

The roaring in her ears dulled so the sound that overtook it now was a raspy fast sort of panting. It was the sound of animal in a cage, frightened and disorientated and so alone… so very, very alone.

Alone.

The word took root in her mind.

Alone.

She was alone.

She was always alone.

So very, very alone.

Then the darkness grabbed her then and she tumbled into it.

000

Everything hurt.

Kaoru pulled herself into consciousness feeling not quite unlike a swimming struggling to reach the surface and resist being pulled back down.

Her vision swam in front of her eyes, a blurred mess. Kaoru counted her blinks, one… two… three… four… on five everything snapped into focus. She was in a room she recognized vaguely as hers. The lights were dimmed and her sensitized-eyes were grateful.

She took a deep breath and then immediately wished she hadn't. Her side felt like someone had been kicking it repeatedly, ribs giving off a distant-ache that spoke of many pain relieving drugs having been pumped into her system.

"You awake?"

Kenshin's voice.

"My eyes are open aren't they?" Kaoru's voice cracked and her throat throbbed in pain.

Shit everything hurt.

There was a fall of red at the corner of her vision and Kaoru blinked, her eyes sliding to follow it.

"How do you feel?"

"Shitty," Kaoru replied. "Mind telling me what the fuck it was that you gave me? It sure as hell wasn't Wunder."

"No, it wasn't Wunder." Kenshin agreed.

"If you're trying to kill me I'd rather do it in a way that I can fight back. Poisoning me is a shitheads way of murder." Kaoru wanted to feel angry but all she could feel was drained and tired.

"Megumi tested the pills that remained in the packet," Kenshin didn't seem to hear her. "It was a Wunder mimicking compound but not Wunder."

"I already told you it wasn't Wunder," Kaoru said.

"Megumi managed to get you to throw up whatever it was that you had taken and then gave you a shot of liquid Wunder to get your seizures under control." Kenshin continued to talk as if he didn't hear and she wanted to smack him for it.

"How did she know to do that?" Kaoru asked.

"She's a doctor."

Most doctors didn't know what to do with Psychics, Kaoru wanted to tell him. They seemed to think that they shouldn't be treated as humans and instead a complete separate other species all together.

On the street you soon learned that if a Psychic was in trouble you relied on each other rather than going to run and fetch a doctor. Kaoru's few experiences with doctors before she learned better, had involved the doctor stepping back and observing reactions much in the same manner a kid would watch a bug's wings being burned off on the other side of a microscope.

Kaoru sighed and closed her eyes.

It hurt too much to even think; all she wanted to do was go to sleep for three or four days.

She heard a creak and saw that Kenshin had gotten up out of his chair. Good he was leaving the room – her room – Kaoru felt panic build in her stomach as she realized where she was and where he was and smothered it.

Her room.

She didn't exactly have the best history in it.

Gohei…

Iizuka….

Kaoru closed her eyes and pulled the covers up over her shoulders.

"Do you want anything to eat?" Kenshin asked.

Food…

Kaoru's stomach clenched.

"No," she murmured softly. "Just… leave please…"

She didn't open her eyes until he had left the room.

The Wunder…

If it had even been Wunder hadn't worked. She didn't know if it had been planted or if it was a bad batch that the Police had gotten on a raid (dealers substituting Wunder for something else was not unheard of). Or maybe it had been Wunder and for some reason it just hadn't worked properly…

Kaoru cursed again.

Too many questions and no answers.

All she did know was that her withdrawals were getting worse. Worse and closer together…

"Leiko," Kaoru sighed. The pattern was the same. She just didn't know how much time she had left.

If she had any at all.

"What am I going to do?" She asked the question to the empty room and didn't really expect an answer. She got none.

The answer was already there.

Two options and neither of which were pleasant.

She could continue taking Wunder and slowly go crazy and die a violent death. Or… she could stop taking the Wunder and maybe go crazy and maybe die a violent death. Kaoru didn't know anyone who had tried to come off Wunder and been successful.

They either died from the withdrawal or they went back on Wunder to escape the pain the process caused.

What would keep her alive longest? Kaoru didn't know the answer to that question.

Either way she would probably die. The drug or the withdrawal. One or the other would kill her. Maybe not right away, maybe not right then…But if it gave her a few weeks… months… a year… Enough time to find who had killed her family and avenge their deaths…

Her mind made up, Kaoru pulled the covers over her head and sank back into the darkness, sleeping fitfully.

000

Kenshin came downstairs to find Megumi sitting at the table in the kitchen, her hands wrapped around a mug of coffee. She sighed when she saw him and he raised an inquiring eyebrow.

"Be careful Kenshin."

"Of what?" He asked.

"Kaoru."

"What about her?"

"She's a telepath," Megumi said in a tone of voice that indicated that the statement alone explained everything.

Kenshin just looked at her. "I know."

"No you don't." Megumi raised the mug to her lips and swallowed. "All her life she's been fantasized over. Objectified and turned into a thing. Not considered a person. She knows the thoughts that are in people's heads."

"And what are you trying to say?"

Megumi shook her head slowly. Pushing back the chair she got to her feet and walked over to the sink where she poured the rest of her coffee down the drain before placing her mug on top of the counter. "Nothing." She turned back to him and there was a look in her eyes he hadn't seen before.

"Just… be careful Kenshin…" She said. "Don't get hurt."

"Megumi?"

She shook her head again not quite meeting his eyes. "Be careful Kenshin."

"About what?"

This time it was her who looked at him soundlessly.

"You haven't been around Psychics a lot except to hurt them Kenshin," she reminded him.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Kenshin asked. "We're Police."

"But she isn't."

"I know that Megumi," Kenshin replied.

"No you don't."

"She's a Psychic."

"And Sano isn't the only idiot I know of." Megumi answered. She brushed past him and headed up the stairs to the direction of her room.

Kenshin stared after her a moment and shook his head, pulling a chair out from the table and sitting down upon it."

"She's a Psychic." He repeated.

She was a Psychic and he was Police. That was the truth of the matter.

Alone…

The word whispered through his mind.

Lifting his head and looking upward he could just barely make out Kaoru's shut door from where he sat

Alone…

Kenshin closed his eyes. 'Psychic.' He reminded himself.

Alone….


	11. Chapter 11

Okay this ended up really, really long. So I was initially going to make it two chapters. But I couldn't find a good breaking point so you just end up with a really, really long chapter. Enjoy! This is where things get messy so you have been warned.

Shiin

000

Kaoru spent the next few days avoiding everyone.

That in itself wasn't unusual. She kept her interactions with the others to the bare minimum, meal times (whenever she was hungry and Iizuka wasn't around) and the odd nights when they pulled out a board game and then Uno and Megumi enlisted her help to beat the guys. Missions of course she was forced to go on, but Kenshin hadn't as much as breathed a word to her about another mission or reconnaissance since the incident with Iizuka.

Kaoru was glad in a way. It gave her more time to plan and figure things out. What she was going to do exactly she still wasn't quite sure… The waiting though was murder and Kaoru spent most of her time either in her bedroom or up in the dojo beating up her punching bag and working on katas.

Waiting…

And then nearly a week later it happened.

A Withdrawal attack and her decision was made for her.

000

The breakfast had been made and passed out, everyone was either finishing up eating, picking at the remains of the meal (Iizuka had made omelets and they were decent for the part) or drinking coffee.

Kenshin idly tapped a finger against the rim of his only half-listening to the conversation and letting the words flow around him.

"…she doesn't eat," Uno was saying and with effort Kenshin turned his attention on what she was talking about. "And she's extremely thin. I caught a glimpse of her yesterday in a tank top while she was in the dojo, and believe me; the girl seriously needs some meals shoved down her throat."

"Maybe she's anorexic," Iizuka rolled his eyes.

"Maybe it's your cooking," Uno shot back.

"She's a Psychic," Iizuka's voice was just shy of a sneer.

"She's not that bad actually," Uno said. "For a Psychic."

"Yeah and if she didn't have that bomb attached to her arm do you think she'd hesitate to blow our brains out our ears?" Iizuka replied.

Uno shrugged, "I don't know." She admitted. "Where is she anyway?"

"Do I care?" Iizuka retorted.

"Of course you don't," Megumi answered. "You don't care about anyone but yourself."

"I thought we were discussing the Bitch, not me." Iizuka said.

"Iizuka stop being a jackass," Takasugi sighed.

Iizuka bristled slightly but subsided.

"Kenshin?"

"Hmm?" Kenshin turned his head in Megumi's direction.

"Will you drag her down so we can shove some food into her?" Something flickered in her eyes. "She's been up there too long by herself."

"Trying to socialize her?" Iizuka snickered. "She's not a stray puppy you can bring home and housetrain."

Megumi glared, "Iizuka shut up or you will find something nasty in your food especially for you next mealtime. Got it?"

"Bitch," Iizuka hissed under his breath almost too low for them to hear. Kenshin wasn't sure if he meant Megumi or Kaoru.

"Iizuka leave the compound and go calm down," Kenshin said.

"Kicking me out?" Iizuka's eyebrows rose.

"Yes," Kenshin got to his feet and gathered his plate and mug up and carried them to the counter, placing them into the dish washer. "Leave."

Iizuka gave a short sharp nod and left the kitchen, the front door slamming loudly behind him.

"Jackass," Uno echoed Takasugi's remark. "Can I accidentally throw one of my knives in the next mission and have it end up in his ass?"

"No thank you," Megumi grumbled. "I'll be stuck taking care of him."

"Right," Uno muttered.

"Speaking of taking care of," Megumi looked at Kenshin. "Go grab the girl and bring her down so she can get a decent meal. It wouldn't be good to have her collapse halfway through the next mission because she hasn't eaten anything."

Megumi had a point.

"Fine," Kenshin nodded reluctantly and headed toward the staircase.

"Takasugi will you make something for her to eat?" Megumi asked. She wrinkled her nose at the half-eaten omelet on her plate. "Iizuka can't cook for shit. I wouldn't give this to a dog."

000

Blood.

She was bleeding.

In the midst of one of her seizures Kaoru must have bitten through her lip.

Oddly enough it didn't hurt.

Everything else hurt though.

Kaoru pressed her back against the wall and attempted to pull her seizing limbs into a ball against herself. She didn't want to take the chance of curling up on the bed. She'd fall off, and with her luck hit something and injure her self more.

So she stayed curled up as best she could on the floor.

Her power whipped inside of her, turning against itself and echoing around in her head painfully.

'Been up there too long….'

Megumi's thoughts felt like knives in her mind and she fought back a whimper.

Iizuka's mental thought of what she could be doing made her stomach clench and she clamped down on her power as it screamed inside of her to twist a few things inside of his mind so that he'd never entertain such an idea again.

There were footsteps outside her door and Kaoru's power flung itself at whomever it was that was coming near her. It smashed against a thick shield and then rebounded hissing violently in fury.

Kenshin.

The doorknob rattled the sound grating on ears that suddenly seemed to have turned too sensitive.

A moment later there was the sound of splintering wood as the door broke in two.

"What are you doing?" Kenshin's voice was a snarl and Kaoru jerked both from it and the steadily worsening seizures.

Light flooded the room and she screamed as it assaulted her already too sensitized brain.

"What are you doing?" Kenshin repeated the question.

"Staying on the floor," Kaoru gritted out.

"Why?"

"I don't want to continue seizing and fall off the bed and break my neck accidentally."

"Why aren't you taking Wunder?" Kenshin's eyes were narrowed into slits.

Kaoru gave a bitter laugh and then yelped as her body spasmed, knocking her head against the wall. "You're actually offering me it? No thanks." Oh god if she didn't die from the withdrawal the irony of having him offer it – almost willingly – and her refusing was going to kill her.

"You need it."

"Yeah, I'd also like to live longer than six months."

Kenshin froze and blinked slowly, "what?"

"It's killing me. If I don't get it out of my system – now – I'll be dead in six months. A year tops."

The pain was growing, spreading through her and Kaoru wondered at how she was managing to even think coherently. "Want to do something for me?"

"What?" Kenshin asked warily.

"Get me some restraints and a gag."

"What?" Kenshin repeated again.

"Gag keeps me from biting through my tongue. Restraints keep me from hurting myself while I ride this fucking thing out."

'And please don't tell Iizuka,' she added silently. 'I have enough shit from him without him getting any further ideas.'

Kenshin looked at her; Kaoru didn't want to know what she looked like right now. Her lip was still bleeding profusely so it was a good chance that the lower half of her face was covered in blood. Kaoru could feel a bump the size of an egg on her temple. Her body twitched and shuddered and she had pulled so tight into herself that her limps protested, pain shooting through them.

Then he was gone.

A moment later he returned.

Megumi was beside him, her eyes wide and her face pale as she took in Kaoru's condition.

Kenshin reached for her and she swatted feebly at him. He dodged her attempts and her body bucked violently as Kenshin picked her up and laid her onto the bed.

She missed the look on his face and a flash of pain covered any thoughts that might have had.

'She's so light… too light. Uno said she was thin…' His teeth ground together.

Kaoru had said very little about her life on the streets, so he shouldn't have been surprised that she was undernourished. She never ate much during dinner come to think of it…

"Hold her arm," Kenshin instructed Megumi who nodded tensely and wrestled one of Kaoru's flailing limbs down against the coverlet so that Kenshin could slip a restraint over it and tie the other end to the headboard. The others followed quickly.

Karou's jaws clamped down on the gag so fast he nearly got his fingers bitten.

Kaoru shriek was muffled as her body spasmed, spine arching almost impossibly. The restrains pulled taut and for a second Kenshin thought they would snap.

Kenshin threw up a shield over both him and Megumi as Kaoru's power lashed out and rebounded furiously against them.

After a moment the wave of seizing stopped and Kaoru lay back down on the bed, her limps twitching slightly, and her chest heaving. Tears were running down her face mixing with the blood that was drying.

"Can't you give her anything?" Kenshin snarled.

Megumi shook her head mutely, "I don't know what I _could_ give her."

"Morphine?"

Megumi fought the urge to hit him, "she might jump on the next addictive drug we put her on… So no."

"Nothing," Kaoru said her voice muffled around the gag. "Give. Me. Nothing."

Kenshin snarled and she glared at him.

"Sedatives?"

"Megumi," Kaoru hissed.

"What?" Megumi arched an eyebrow at her tone.

"He gives me anything you shoot him."

Kenshin's eyes narrowed.

"Second thought… I'll just make him walk around in Uno's underwear," Kaoru mumbled around the gag.

Kenshin sputtered and Megumi snickered.

"She would do it too you know," Megumi grinned.

Kaoru made to reply but it was then that the seizures decided to resume once more.

Loud!

Loud!

Too loud!

Kenshin and Megumi's thoughts were mercifully kept under shields but the others…

Her power writhed wanting to make them stop – to force the pain away.

With difficulty Kaoru jumped on it and halted it before it could get away from her.

No turning the others (and no she couldn't let Iizuka be the exception – it was either all of them or none) into vegetables just for just thinking.

"Out!" Kaoru said tensely when they lessened for a brief moment. "Everybody. Out. Of the house now. Out."

Her power hissed and rebounded back on her and she screamed.

It couldn't hurt them so it hurt her instead.

Kaoru said every curse she knew as the pain tore through her skull blazing along her nerve endings.

"Out!" She screamed when she noticed Kenshin and Megumi were still there.

"I. Don't. Have. Control." Her voice broke in a sob and she cursed at it.

Her head was flopping back and forth and Kaoru felt like a ragdoll being shaken by a giant.

The restrains were making an audible stretching sound as she seized.

But they continued thankfully to hold.

Kaoru spared a brief moment to thank Kenshin for getting something that wouldn't break easily.

Now all she had to worry about was not accidentally breaking something or popping a limb out of place when she seized.

The sudden absence of voices in her mind told her that the others had left.

She breathed a quick sigh of relief.

Good, she wouldn't end up accidentally killing someone as she lost control of her power.

She tensed as the door suddenly opened.

"What. Part. Of. Get. The. Fuck. Out. Don't. You. Understand." She snarled around the gag at Kenshin.

"You shouldn't be alone."

Kaoru laughed bitterly. "That's a new one."

"You might hurt yourself."

"You have a better chance of me hurting you." Kaoru replied.

Kenshin grabbed the chair next to her never-used desk and sat down on it.

Oh yes the irony of her situation was going to kill Kaoru if the withdrawal didn't.

Pain!

Pain!

Oh so much pain!

The seizures weren't getting any worse really, they were just hurting a hell of a lot more as her already sore body continued to seize. Kaoru would have preferred them to be worse than to have more pain. Short and sweet rather than this long drawn out feeling-like-it-would-never-ever-end process…

Kaoru whimpered.

"Anything I can do?"

"You actually are offering?" Kaoru asked.

"Yes."

He was being truthful and it almost scared Kaoru.

"As long as your way of being helpful doesn't include shooting me," Kaoru muttered.

Kenshin snorted.

Kaoru cursed softly. "You're not going to like my solution for this."

Kenshin raised an eyebrow, "try me."

"Letmeintoyourhead," Kaoru cringed.

Kenshin's eyes widened and he growled.

"I'm. Not. Doing. This. For. Fun." Kaoru snapped.

"Fine," Kenshin bit off.

"Promise I won't take over your body or something to that affect." Kaoru sighed. "I just need to get out of my own body before it kills me."

Kenshin's eyes narrowed but he nodded in a short, sharp motion.

Kaoru sighed and let her mind drift toward Kenshin's. His shield snapped at her and she waited for him to lower it.

As he did she slipped inside and found a quiet corner to curl up in.

Faintly she was aware that her body stopped seizing and became still as she fled it.

Kaoru definitely had not expected it to be how it was.

Sure she had been in his mind before, but even so it surprised her still.

It was quiet.

Calm.

No blood or flashes of dying psychics.

Darkness fell over like an inky sheet and she sighed letting it wrap around her.

The pain faded.

She felt Kenshin's mind brush against her. It was tainted with surprise and a bit of unease but not hostile.

'Welcome to my world,' She told him a bit grimly. 'Now you know what it's like to have someone poking around in your head.'

Kenshin snorted and she opened her 'eyes' to see that he was sitting across from her.

'How are you feeling?'

'Better,' Kaoru gave him a smile. 'Thank you.'

Two words she never thought she ever say to him.

Kenshin snorted softly and shrugged.

Kaoru fought the urge to stick her tongue out at him.

'Don't mention it,' she grumbled translating for him. 'Arrogant bastard.'

'How come you never told us anything?' Kenshin asked.

'Would you have cared?' Kaoru shot back.

'Yes.'

Kaoru blinked at him.

'You're part of the team.'

'Aa,' Kaoru murmured.

'Would you really be dead in six months?' There was tightness in his voice that had her looking at him.

'Yes I would have. At most I would have lived a year perhaps.' Kaoru shrugged. 'I have no intention of becoming a Berserker just so can you end up with what it is now – one hundred and fifty psychic kills?'

Kenshin's eyes narrowed. 'What is the survival rate for your withdrawal?'

'Don't have a clue,' Kaoru sighed. 'They either die or go back on the Wunder to escape the pain. I'll give it an optimistic five percent.'

'Do you some kind of a death wish?' Kenshin hissed softly.

Kaoru shook her head, 'just working with the cards I got dealt.'

Kenshin raised an eyebrow.

'Fate's a bitch,' Kaoru muttered.

Oh great this was where they were going to have a long drawn out talk about her past wasn't it?

Kaoru sighed and cursed softly. 'I was orphaned really young. The orphanage I ended up in was decent enough. Until I turned – nine maybe? – And started showing some signs of being a Psychic. Of course that the good-old nuns couldn't have a Psychic-kid in the orphanage. They threw me out.'

Kaoru raised her eyebrow at Kenshin's soft growl.

'Beats getting killed by a cop or sold as a science experiment for some lab to pick me apart and see how I work.'

'That doesn't happen.' Kenshin said.

Kaoru laughed softly. 'Wish I could say you were right.' She ticked off on her fingers. 'Ichi got nabbed and never seen again. Claudia was taken and found three weeks later dead with her mind a total blank… Whatever the hell they did to her I still haven't been able to find out. The twins….' Kaoru shook her head in the memory of Patricia and Lily – the two seers. 'Their eyes were torn out. Some bastard probably thought that they could see the future using them.'

Kenshin had tensed with every example.

Kaoru gave him a bitter smile. 'What do they tell you in the academy? Nothing? Psychics bad – go kill?'

'Something like that,' Kenshin muttered.

Kaoru sighed and resumed. 'After that happened my group was gone – I ended up bumping into Ricky and Leiko.' Her mouth twisted into a smile. 'They were my family until they died.' She suddenly sighed. 'They also introduced me to Wunder, since at that point I was nearly crazed from the voices in my head.'

'It helped at first,' Kaoru continued. 'I could think beyond the pain in my head. I sure as hell felt a ton better on it. But once my powers were under my control finally I was dependant on it and couldn't get off it.' She shook her head. 'Which leads me to here...Hi Kenshin, sorry for invading your mind…'

She sighed again feeling so very, very tired. 'Just want to rest,' she mumbled, eyes closing.

'Rest,' Kenshin's voice was so soft she thought she imagined it.

Kaoru muttered something in reply and sank into the darkness.

000

Kaoru's thoughts felt fuzzy as she awoke.

Her entire body ached.

With a soft groan she opened her eyes.

Her restrains had been undone sometime during the night as she had slept. Thick bandages covered her wrists. Kaoru was pretty sure she hadn't cut herself open but they felt bruised and her hands tingled painfully as she flexed her fingers.

A touch to her mouth told her that the blood on her face had been cleaned off, her mouth still tasted coppery and bitter. Kaoru wished desperately for a glass of water. Her Head pounded lightly – a low-grade migraine – she could handle that.

Something brushed against her back and she tensed.

Craning her neck around her eyes widened as she saw Kenshin sleeping beside the bed on a chair he had pulled away from her never-used desk.

'I think I'm hallucinating,' Kaoru thought faintly.

He looked so different asleep.

The tenseness and drive with that he held himself had faded and he looked relaxed for the first time that she had ever seen him. For a brief second Kaoru saw the child that he had been before the telekinetics had destroyed his family. The lines around his eyes and mouth had faded… he looked gentle almost….

How old was he exactly?

She didn't know.

Then again she didn't know her own exact age.

What would his life have been like? Kaoru wondered. Had his family never been killed by Psychics would he have still ended up as Battousai?

For that matter what would her own life have been like had her parents not died, had she not been a psychic?

Kaoru had never really wished to be normal.

But at this moment she did.

Kenshin stirred, eyes fluttering – his gaze sleepy. He blinked once and then the sleepy look in his eyes faded and the golden gaze hardened.

"Hi," Kaoru said softly. Her throat felt raw.

"How are you feeling?"

"Truthfully? Like shit," Kaoru managed a grin. "And that was only day one. Oh joy."

"Is it going to get worse?"

"Probably," Kaoru shrugged. "Do me a favor? If I ask you to shoot me – no matter how tempting it is. Don't."

Kenshin snorted.

"You'd do it. You know you would." Kaoru narrowed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him. "Though you'd probably make it quick and painless."

"I would."

Call it mercy killing perhaps.

"Thanks… I think," Kaoru rolled her eyes. "Do me a favor please?"

"What?"

"Get me a glass of water if you would."

"Anything else?"

"No meds," Kaoru said firmly.

Kenshin's eyes narrowed and his look was considering. "Do you want anything to eat?"

Kaoru's stomach twisted at the thought of food.

"Water only," she requested.

Kenshin looked at her silently for a moment and then nodded once and then was gone.

Kaoru sighed and closed her eyes and tried to access her injuries of the moment. Big bump on her forehead…. Wrists hurt like hell as do ankles; and they are probably all sorts of nice colors under the bandages…My throat feels like I've swallowed glass…

If she wasn't so sure that the seizures wouldn't return soon she would have hobbled over to the bathroom and soaked under the hot water. But no, Kaoru wasn't interested in accidentally drowning herself.

The door creaked as Kenshin came back a glass of water in his hand.

"Thanks," Kaoru reached for it and cursed as it slipped through numb fingers. Good thing Kenshin hadn't let go of it completely before handing it to her or it would have hit the floor and shattered.

"Shit," Kaoru cursed.

"Here," Kenshin held it against her mouth and tilted.

Kaoru choked slightly but swallowed reflexively.

She pulled her head away and batted at the glass. The water had helped her throat didn't feel as raw as it did before.

"Stop being nice to me," she muttered.

"You're part of the team." Kenshin replied.

"When'd that become official?" Kaoru growled.

Kenshin glared at her and she snarled softly.

Muttering under her breath about stupid Type-A control freaks she closed her eyes and sank back against the pillows.

After a moment she opened and eye and glared at Kenshin as he sat down across from her on the chair.

"Why are you doing this?" Kaoru asked softly.

"I don't let anyone in my team die," Kenshin said.

"So it's ok for you to kill people but not to have people die on you," Kaoru muttered. "You have a complex."

She cursed suddenly as she felt her fingers starting to twitch, the spasming working its way up her arms.

"Restraints… again…" Kaoru sighed.

Kenshin had barely slipped the gag back into her mouth when the seizures broke over her again.

Kaoru clamped down her writhing power and cried out as it rebounded against her, tearing through her.

There was a flicker of a thought against her barriers and Kaoru cursed.

"What the fuck is Megumi doing here?"

"I called her."

"Kenshin," Kaoru's eyes widened. "If my power breaks away from me it's going to kill anyone it can reach. I'm trying to keep the body count down."

Her body spasmed again and Kaoru bit down hard on the gag to muffle her screams.

When she could see straight again Kaoru saw Megumi bending over her.

"You look like shit," Megumi's mouth pulled into a frown.

"I feel like it," Kaoru retorted.

"What are your symptoms exactly?"

"Seizures mainly," Kaoru ground out. 'And my power going bonkers on me.' She added silently. "The pain is causing me to lose control of my powers. Which is why I wanted everyone away."

She gave Kenshin a pointed glare.

"What is your power doing?" Megumi's voice was no-nonsense.

"Acting murderous," Kaoru said cheerfully.

"And it's not killing people because…?"

"I'm not letting it," Kaoru said firmly.

Kaoru could almost hear the audible click in both of their brains and suddenly she found herself being glared at by the two of them.

"Kaoru…" Megumi's voice turned suddenly sweet so fast it was frightening. "What is your power doing to you?"

"Using me as a whipping boy," Kaoru sighed.

Whipping girl.

Something like that anyway.

She suddenly had the feelings that if she didn't die from the withdrawal Kenshin and Megumi were going to form a line to kill her themselves. The looks they were giving her were not pleasant at the moment.

She cringed under their glares.

Kenshin she could handle.

Megumi she could handle.

Both?

'I think I want to go ahead and die now,' Kaoru whimpered.

"How do you keep your power from hurting you?" Kenshin's voice was soft. Personally Kaoru would have preferred him to be yelling at her.

"Let it out…" Kaoru shook her head. "Not a good idea!"

"Why?" Kenshin's voice had dropped turning cold.

"It wants to hurt things because I'm in pain." Kaoru muttered.

"So let it," Kenshin told her.

Kaoru glared at him. "You want to end up as a vegetable?"

He glared back hissing.

Kaoru closed her eyes sighing.

Quickly she undid the bindings she had placed around her power and yelped as it flooded her, its touch searing and hot. It yanked itself out of her body and flung itself at Kenshin and Megumi – rebounding at shields and seething and snarling it pummeled at them furiously.

Kaoru bit back a curse when she felt Kenshin's barriers crack and lower. Screaming her power flooded him, ripping into his mindscape.

'What the fuck are you doing!' Kaoru screamed at him.

She caught a fleeting glimpse of him fading into the shadows of his mind, and keening her power took off after him.

Kaoru reached to draw it back into herself and got snapped at, nearly jolting her back into her own body.

Her power was a maelstrom of pain and ever-growing need to hurt something.

It tore furiously through the layers of his mind intent on hurting him.

Kaoru screeched to a stop when she found herself in a small dojo.

Kenshin was standing in the center dressed in a black hakama and gi, his hair pulled into a top knot, golden eyes blazing through crimson strands that had fallen across his face. In his hands he was holding a very sharp long sword.

Kaoru felt her power draw back slightly, assessing.

"You need to let it out," Kaoru stepped as he did, the two of them circling each other. She blinked when a sword suddenly formed in her hands.

"So let it out."

Her power pulsed spreading through her and Kaoru felt a grin steal across her face. Anticipation now colored the bloodlust that was racing through her and Kaoru felt slightly calmer, the pain fading ever so slightly.

Kaoru charged.

The sword twisted in her hand adjusting to her and her power flooded the blade without her even thinking about it. It edged the blade in blue-light that was just a blur as it cut through the air.

Instead of meeting her attack however Kenshin dodged, blurring. Kaoru was spinning after him instantly. Kenshin continued to duck and dodge and force her to race after him.

Her power snarled within her and she tapped into it and felt it course through her. Her movements sped up until she was keep pace with him easily. The world around her shifted, everything seemed to have sped up and be happening faster. The colors seemed brighter and out of the corner of her eye Kaoru saw faint auras in the light; bursts of rainbow color at the far corners of her gaze.

She lunged and sparks flew as her sword connected with his. Kenshin's face was grim, his golden eyes flashing. In her enhanced vision they seemed to glow.

Kaoru felt her lips pull back in a snarl and faintly she could hear herself growling. She pressed harder against him and felt him hesitate and step back, giving way.

He wasn't fighting her, she realized.

He was just letting her attack him. He was just defending and doing no more than he should to keep her at bay.

That wouldn't work at all.

'Fight me,' she hissed softly. 'I need you to fight me.'

Kenshin's eyes flickered and he nodded slightly.

Almost before she could react his foot lashed out sweeping her legs out from under her. Kaoru twisted, flipping in midair and managed to catch herself.

When she righted herself Kenshin was several feet away in the middle of the floor.

Waiting…

She blurred and he met her. Kaoru felt everything fade away. Her world had narrowed down to one thing.

Fighting.

Her body moved on its own reacting faster than her thoughts could keep up.

Thrust and parry.

Kick free to give her distance.

Block as he came at her again.

Sparks flying from their blades as they met… Her head snapped to the side dodging a blow that had it landed would have knocked her out.

Wrench free from him once more.

Collide.

Kenshin attempted to sweep her legs out from under her and she jumped to avoid it. He anticipated it and she felt him slam into her, sending her flying.

She crashed on the floor and skidded back several feet before stopping.

He was a blur out of the corner of her eye.

Kaoru tensed ready to jump to her feet and resume fighting.

And then she froze at the feel of Kenshin's blade at her neck.

"Yield?" Kenshin's voice was soft, golden eyes burning through the curtain of hair around his face.

Sometime during their fighting his hair tie had broke and his hair spilled around him free. Kaoru vaguely wondered how he had managed to keep any of it from getting cut. Had it been her she would have lost several chunks.

Kaoru nodded carefully. "Yield," she replied.

And like that her power fled her. She felt it seep from her limps. The high it had given her as she had fought Kenshin disappeared. She blinked several times. The colors around her faded and returned to normal. She felt connected to herself once more.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and then opened them once again.

Kenshin's sword had vanished. He was wearing his police uniform, not the gi and hakama he had previously. Quietly, he stood over her, waiting patiently for her to get up. He didn't offer to help her up. Kaoru wouldn't have accepted it anyway.

Kaoru pushed herself to her feet. Her knees felt shaky and she concentrated on standing.

Kenshin stepped back to give her space, eyes watching her.

"Better?" He questioned softly.

"Yes," Kaoru replied. She felt exhausted. It felt good, a tired-numbness that came after a good workout or after having had pushed yourself.

"Thank you," she said softly to Kenshin.

She let herself fade from his mind and returned to her body.

000

Kaoru came back to herself with a jolt. Her power faded within her and she felt it retreat, slipping through her grasp to find a quiet corner at the back of her mind to recover and regain strength.

Pain broke free from the binds her power had placed on it and she screamed as it crashed through her without her power to act as a buffer.

"Megumi!" Kenshin's voice sounded far away, and was barely audible over the roaring in her ears.

Vaguely she registered the fact that someone was holding her down against the bed as her body bucked and seized, trying to escape the pain.

"Give her something!"

Megumi's reply was lost as Kaoru screamed her head snapping back as her body arched painfully.

"Give. Her. Something." Kenshin's voice was a growl.

"She's coming off drugs!" Megumi snapped. "We don't know what will happen if we give something to her!"

'Kaoru?' Kenshin reached toward her.

Kaoru flinched. 'Hurts. Oww! Oww! Really fucking hurts!'

'Kaoru?'

'Yes…?' Kaoru's voice sounded strained.

There was a shifting sensation and everything spun. When Kaoru opened her 'eyes' she was once more back in his mind.

'One of these days I'm going to figure out how you do that,' Kaoru sighed and curled up into a ball. The pain was gone now and she was so very, very tired.

'Better now?'

'Yes…' Kaoru sighed. 'Thanks…'

'Could we give you anything?'

'No drugs.' Kaoru said firmly.

'How much pain are you in?'

'On a scale of one to ten?' Kaoru asked. 'I'd say about a fifteen.'

Kenshin hissed softly and she sighed. 'You'd probably get all twitchy if I described to you what it feels like…"

'What does it feel like?'

Kaoru 'shrugged.' 'You asked for it. … Think a cross between the skin in your back getting flayed off and the blood in your veins boiling.'

Yep that was a definite twitch.

'We're putting you on something to take it away.'

'And have my little junkie self get hooked on something else?' Kaoru replied. 'No thank you.'

Kaoru could hear his teeth grinding slightly. 'I called you…?'

'Not out loud.' Kaoru said cheerfully.

Kenshin hissed softly. 'Sorry.'

'Heh, you're being all nice to me I should have withdrawing-from-Wunder episodes more often.'

That was another twitch.

'Or maybe not,' Kaoru amended. 'It hurts like fuck.' She let herself sink into the comforting darkness of his mind.

She yelped as she found herself grabbed.

'What are you doing?'

'You fall asleep and you slip back into your own body.'' Kenshin said softly.

'I'm tired,' Kaoru murmured. She was so very, very tired…

She batted at his hand. 'Let me go.'

'You're still seizing,' Kenshin informed her.

'I've been timing the distance between them and duration of them,' Kaoru said. 'Should be stopping right about now...'

Kenshin's eyes were narrow and a muscle in his cheek jumped, 'Fine.'

Kaoru rolled her eyes and pulled away letting the darkness ripple over her.

000

With a scream she found herself yanked back into her still-seizing body.

She tensed, screwing her eyes shut as her body arched almost impossibly. The ties around her wrists strained. She didn't know how long it lasted, the pain kept her thoughts scattered and she couldn't count in order to gauge its length exactly.

It felt like forever but it finally passed and she collapsed against the bed panting.

She opened her eyes and saw Kenshin still standing over her with Megumi beside him.

She opened her mouth to tell him to stop looking like that but instead of words what came out of her mouth was a muffled scream.

Her seizures were speeding up faster than she had anticipated. There had been almost no pause between the last one and the current one she was experiencing now. Kaoru hadn't expected them to quicken so fast and without any hint of warning.

She heard Kenshin step toward her and his mind brushed against hers.

'No!' She told him firmly. 'I'm going to ride this out.'

'Stubborn," he hissed.

'You're just realizing that now?' Kaoru asked.

She blinked, her vision refocusing and saw he was glaring at her.

"I'm riding it out," Kaoru said out loud for Megumi's benefit.

"Kaoru," Megumi said softly. "Let me at least give you something to lessen the pain."

Kaoru shook her head, "No. The pain helps. If I'm numb I can't tell if I've hurt myself or done something else that is serious. If I'm numb I won't be able to feel them or time them or know if I should expect a seizure or not."

Megumi's eyes closed and she rubbed at her temples. "Fine," she murmured softly.

'Kaoru,' Kenshin's mind brushed against hers again. 'Let me at least take you out of your body for the time being. You're exhausted and you need to recover.'

'I can recover when these damned seizures are over.' Kaoru retorted.

'And how long will that be?' Kenshin replied. 'A day? Three days?'

Kaoru's only reply was a growl.

'Come on,' he said.

'Stop being nice to me!' She snapped. He'd only go back to being a bastard once she was hale and healthy. Whenever that would be…

'Fine,' he replied. There was a wrenching sensation and Kaoru opened her eyes to find herself once more back in his mindscape.

'Bastard,' she hissed.

'You told me to stop being nice.'

'And thank you for taking that literally,' Kaoru's sarcasm reared its head. 'Smug bastard.'

Kenshin snorted and she sighed and settled down on the bench that oh-so-helpfully appeared.

'You are not helping,' she informed him.

'That's your opinion,' Kenshin replied.

'That's a fact,' she answered and closed her eyes leaning against the backrest of the bench. 'I feel like a damned yo-yo." She muttered. 'It gets worse, it gets better, it gets worse again.'

'How much longer do you think?' Kenshin asked.

'I honestly don't know,' Kaoru murmured. 'I'm so tired. I want to sleep.' She wanted to rest, to give herself a chance to heal.

'Kaoru,' there was a tense note in Kenshin's voice. It seemed suddenly very far away.

'Kaoru!'

Kaoru found herself pulled out of his mind and back into her body.

000

Pain slammed into Kaoru tearing a sob from her throat. Her body was seizing violently. The interval between the last round of seizures and this one seemed to have lasted only a second. If there had even been an interval.

Kaoru could feel herself arching higher, straining against her bindings with every convulsion. She was being pulled tighter and tighter and soon something would have to give. Something would snap.

Something did.

There was a sickening 'thwack-pop' sound and then Kaoru's vision went briefly black. There was a faint ringing in her ears and it took her a moment to realize that her seizures had stopped instantly and all the pain was now centering on her shoulder which felt like it was…

"It's dislocated," Megumi's voice came over the ringing in her ears.

"Oh lovely," Kaoru smiled weakly.

"Kaoru?" Megumi's voice was concerned and with effort Kaoru raised her eyes to meet Megumi's worried gaze.

"I'm not seizing anymore," Kaoru murmured stating the obvious. Her voice sounded artificially cheery even to her own ears. "I better not say anything else unless I want to jinx myself." She bit back a whimper and could feel the tears she hadn't given herself the permission to cry, slip down her face. "It hurts…"

"Kenshin," Megumi's voice was an order.

"Yes?" Kaoru could see him out of the corner of her eye but for some reason her eyes didn't want to focus. There was a brittle note in his voice, strained enough to shatter like glass. She let her eyes slip half-closed and fought back a hysterical half-sobbing giggle. At the corner of her vision, she saw Kenshin's gaze jerk toward her eyes burning behind his red bangs and mouth pulled into a thin line, expression tense.

"Call Sano," Megumi said firmly.

"Sano?" Kenshin asked. "Why Sano?"

"Because he's the only one with enough muscle to set Kaoru's shoulder back into place properly," Megumi retorted. "So call him. And quick."

There was a hiss of air between clenched teeth and then Kenshin was gone.

"How are you holding up?" Megumi asked softly as Kenshin left.

She moved over to the bed and untied Kaoru's arm and set it down as gently as she could, probing it carefully. She then undid all her other ties and rotated Kaoru's wrist on her good arm checking it carefully. "So how are you holding up?" She repeated her question.

Kaoru opened her mouth to reply and then closed it. "Not… too well," she admitted honestly.

"It'll be over soon," Megumi's voice was the closet to reassuring she had ever heard it.

"Yeah," Kaoru sighed softly. "Because I'll be dead."

"No you won't!" The snap in Megumi's voice made Kaoru look up at her in surprise. "No one is allowed to die on me." She informed her.

"You and Kenshin both have complexes," Kaoru muttered softly.

Megumi snorted. Kaoru thought she might have been agreeing with her. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on breathing.

The next instant the door swung open banging loudly against the wall. And Sano was stumbling into the room, Kenshin following after him.

"The hell Kenshin! What's the –" his eyes lighted on Kaoru and whatever else he was going to say was forgotten. "You look like shit."

"I've been getting that a lot today," Kaoru retorted.

"Sano put your muscles to good use and pop Kaoru's arm back into place." Megumi said.

Kaoru and Sano both cringed.

"Fox did anyone ever tell you that you have a way with words?" Sano asked.

"Sano," Megumi's voice was a warning, Kaoru blinked as Kenshin echoed her.

"Do it." Kenshin said.

"Okay," Sano nodded. "This is going to hurt."

"I don't think I could hurt anymore," Kaoru replied.

"Just warning you," Sano told her. "Kenshin will you prop her up while I her arm back in?"

Kenshin gave a short nod and moved to her side, helping her sit up and bracing carefully.

"You can hit me later or something," Sano promised.

"Sure," Kaoru murmured.

"Quickly," Megumi told them.

"Ready?" Sano asked.

"Just do it." Kaoru said tensely.

She closed her eyes in effort to block out some of the sensation. She'd be feeling her shoulder being put back into place. She didn't exactly want to see if it not if she could help it. She felt Sano take her arm and Kenshin tensed against her. There was a wrenching sensation as her shoulder was set back into place and Kaoru's vision went black.

Kaoru's consciousness came back to the sound of "don't shake her you idiot!"

"She passed out!" Kenshin's voice and Kaoru blinked.

"Didn't pass out…" Kaoru's voice sounded slurred and she briefly wondered what had happened to her gag. She was propped up against some pillows her arm in a sling. Kaoru frowned. How long had she been out?

"Going limp and unresponsive, that's what most people would call passing out." Sano told her.

"Don't think I can argue with you," Kaoru said softly. "Why does everything feel so fuzzy?"

"I gave you some pain killers." Megumi told her.

"I said no meds," Kaoru protested.

The look Megumi gave her had her shrinking back against the pillows.

"Who's the doctor here?"

"You are," Kaoru said meekly.

"Good girl," Megumi said. She raked her bangs out of her eyes looking suddenly tired. "I think that's the end for now. We're going to leave you to get some rest and check up on you every hour or so. How does that sound?"

"Good," Kaoru murmured.

"Sleep," Megumi said.

Kaoru nodded.

Megumi gave her a quick once over and nodded. Turning to Sano and Kenshin she placed her hands on her hips. "Out. Now. Let Kaoru get some sleep."

They knew better than to argue with her when she used that tone of voice and left the room.

Kaoru sighed and closed her eyes as the door shut. Maybe she would get through this after all…

000

Kaoru raised her head groggily from the pillow. "Megumi whatever you gave me sucks."

"Do you feel any pain?" Megumi asked tartly.

"No…" Kaoru admitted. "Just light-headed and loopy," She had been stuck in the bed for the past three days. Takasugi and Uno had come to visit – Uno bringing a hot pink stuffed cat to 'cheer you up and keep you company.' Kaoru had hid it under the bed and hoped it was being devoured by dust bunnies.

Iizuka thankfully stayed away, Kaoru half-hoped he'd been killed on a mission or something.

And speaking of missions… Kaoru jerked her attention back to what Megumi was saying.

"The team has a mission so we better leave. I'm going to give you something to keep you asleep while we're gone. We'll be back soon."

Kaoru nodded and let her head fall back against the pillow watching as Megumi selected a syringe and walked over and inserted it into the line in her arm. Her mind began to feel fuzzy and she sank into sleep.

She was so tired…

The murmur of their thoughts in her mind faded and then went silent.

She didn't know what woke her but one moment she was asleep the next she was awake with something akin to fear racing through her veins.

What?

She gave her powers a tentative poke and they responded sluggishly, stretching out and searching.

Her power touched off a tangle of thoughts that had her freezing.

Iizuka.

The hell! She had felt him leave with the rest of the team. Why was he back without them!

Her first thought was that they had assigned him to 'guard' her or something. But she dismissed that. No one in the team was that stupid and the migraine she had given Kenshin for pairing him up with her on the last mission had gotten her point across quite nicely.

She heard him climb the stairs and fear formed a lump in her throat and she found it hard to breathe.

Her power was all but dead. She only had the use of one arm and there was no one else in the house… Kaoru began to curse under her breath eyes darting around the room. There was nothing to use as a weapon…

She held her breath and began to hope that he was just coming upstairs to grab something from the hallway closet.

She caught mention of her name and the accompanying image had her shuddering violently.

The door knob turned and she froze, watching it, like a mouse staring at a snake as it seemed to open in slow motion.

Her vision swam and she concentrated on breathing slow and steady. Her heart felt like it was trying to jump out of her ribcage and she cursed mentally. She should have done something when she was forced to work with him, when she had been able to do something.

"What the hell do you want?" Kaoru heard a tremble in her voice and hated it. Desperately she grabbed for her power and felt it slip through her fingers, the weakness and the weariness combined with the drugs she had been given making it muddled and unresponsive.

There were reasons she hated drugs.

Iizuka smiled and she shuddered.

"Aren't you supposed to be the Psychic? Can't you just read my mind?"

Kaoru felt bile rise in her throat at the image he projected purposely at her. He advanced toward her and her breath came in short choppy pants at the sensation of hands trailing across her throat, along her sides, brushing against her thigh…

"Stop!" Her voice broke and she felt tears burn her eyes.

Iizuka chuckled softly, "I'm not doing anything darling."

Kaoru's breathing quickened and she felt hysteria edging her thoughts.

"Don't worry," Iizuka's voice was a croon and she flinched. "I'm not going to touch you. You're just something to sweeten the pot. He'll love you. You're just his type."

"Kanryuu," Kaoru murmured, pulling the name from his mind.

"Yes," Iizuka patted her cheek and she jerked away, tears slipping down her face. "You're not as young as he likes them but your power does have some benefits." His grin turned into a leer and Kaoru felt sick, suddenly reminded of Dove.

"You behave yourself and you might stay on his good side." Iizuka moved away from her and began to move around the room. Kaoru almost breathed a sigh of relief but then went still at his next words and actions.

"Psychics he grows tired of usually end up dead or passed around." He looked in her direction and Kaoru felt her stomach clench. "Always wanted to fuck a Psychic."

He turned away again and began going through Megumi's medicine cabinet. Evidentially he found what he wanted and pulled out a syringe.

"Let's put you to sleep for a bit shall we?"

Kaoru gave a last ditch attempt to reach her power. It scattered and broke, reacting to the fear in her thoughts. Emotions always made using her powers difficult it responded to them and now was responding in the worst way possible.

Kaoru pressed back against the bed wishing that she had the power to phase through it. Iizuka grabbed her arm and twisted, dodging the kick she futilely aimed at him. He stabbed the syringe into the crook of her arm and Kaoru jerked violently.

Whatever was in the syringe hit her hard enough to make her vision blur. It combined with the sleeping meds Megumi had previously injected into her system and darkness swept over her.

000

"Where did Iizuka go to?" Kenshin asked.

"I don't know," Megumi murmured. "We split up to go around the building and I haven't seen him since."

"He could have just gotten lost," Uno muttered.

"Don't think he's that stupid," Takasugi said darkly.

"Hope he's not that stupid." Kenshin replied. "Uno do a quick run through the building and see if he's anywhere to be found. Might have fallen off a stairwell and ht his head or something."

"If I find him can I hit his head off a stairwell?" Uno asked brightly.

"No." Kenshin answered and she pouted.

"I lost my best knife because he wasn't there to cover my back!"

"I'll buy you a new knife," Takasugi soothed.

"Fine," Uno agreed easily enough. "But I get to pick it out though."

"Okay," Takasugi answered and winced as he tried to remember how much exactly that knife she had been eyeing lately was going to cost.

There was a beeping noise and Kenshin glanced down at his wrist watch. "The hell?"

"What is it?" Megumi asked.

"Kaoru's left the compound." He eyed the watch.

"She's supposed to be out. I gave her enough sleeping medicine to keep her out until morning." Megumi said.

Kenshin felt something cold run down his spine. "Megumi how long has it been since you saw Iizuka?"

"An… hour…" Megumi's eyes widened.

"You don't think?" Uno asked.

"She doesn't like Iizuka," Megumi said softly.

That was an understatement. Kenshin's head had ached for days from the mental blow she had given him and the emotions it had contained… like was the farthest thing from her mind when it came to Iizuka.

"We're heading back now." Kenshin informed them.

"Do you want me to stay here and wait for the Retrieval Team?" Takasugi asked.

Kenshin nodded.

They got back to the compound in near record time. Uno was allowed to drive and Kenshin decided to stop thinking about that. If they weren't already police and thus exempt they would have gotten multiple tickets for speeding and reckless driving.

No, he had other things to think about. Like taking a chunk out of Iizuka's hide for abandoning the mission – he didn't even let himself get as far as to what Iizuka might be doing to Kaoru.

The door was unlocked and Kenshin felt a growl build in his throat. The lights were off inside the compound and the sound of their footsteps echoed hollowly.

No one was there.

Stretching out the part of his mind that he had come to acknowledge was used for communicating mind-to-mind Kenshin felt a solid wall of emotion hit him. The fear was so thick it felt choking and he felt ice settle in his stomach.

He was running up the stairs and toward Kaoru's room before he even realized what he was doing. Once inside all the fear and rage and desperation Kaoru had experienced descended upon him. The emotions were so strong that they had left nearly tangible psychic imprints in the room and his throat closed.

He whirled at the sound of footfalls behind him.

"Kenshin?" Megumi asked softly, her eyes went wide as she took in the room, the rumpled sheets on the bed, the IV discarded on the ground and the drawers containing her medicines that had been dumped on the ground.

"He took her," Kenshin's voice was soft. "Iizuka took her."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

000

Kaoru woke slowly. Her thoughts felt sluggish and painful.

What had happened…?

It took effort just to open her eyes.

It was dark in the room, wherever she was. Shadows covered everything. She was glad of the darkness as her eyes hurt (everything hurt) and she didn't want to imagine the pain she'd be in if there was light.

Her vision was slightly blurry and the darkness did nothing to help it. She kept her eyes open and did her best to let her vision adjust to the darkness, moments passed and everything was still dark, a blur of shapes and shadows.

The arm she'd dislocated decided to throb painfully at that moment and she was suddenly aware that it had been pulled out of its sling and strapped to the arm of the chair. Her other arm was strapped down to the other arm of the chair and both her legs had been tied against it tightly.

There was a slight pressure against her head and her eyes widened as she realized exactly what it was.

A Crown.

The fucking bastards had put a Crown on her.

"So you're awake."

Kaoru jerked as recognized Iizuka's voice.

"Where..?" Her tongue felt thick in her mouth and she swallowed. He was a darker blue against darkness, standing at the edges of her vision and she fought the urge to recoil away from him.

Light flickered on suddenly and she jerked again in futile attempt to evade it as it seared across her sensitized eyes.

Iizuka was standing near her – too close her panicked mind cried – and beside him was another man: Kanryuu.

Kaoru shuddered at the slimy touch of his thoughts. With the Crown around her head her power was caged. She couldn't even throw up a shield to block their thoughts. Kaoru shuddered once more.

She felt naked... And exposed…Too…too exposed.

And they knew it.

"So this is the Police's new pet Psychic," Kanryuu mused.

"Yes," Iizuka was grinning like a child with a new toy and Kaoru felt nauseous. She wasn't sure if it was the drugs she had been given or the content of their thoughts.

'I am so having a nice long very cold shower whenever I get out of here,' she told herself.

When not if.

"You did well and she's a nice present," Kanryuu's grin turned into a leer and Kaoru shuddered.

"Oh goody I'm a present. Why don't you tie a bow around my neck?" Kaoru muttered.

Sarcasm was good.

Sarcasm was her friend.

"Jackass."

Unfortunately the thoughts that her little quip had them thinking made her wish she hadn't opened her mouth. Nice big bow and nothing else…

"You've got a mouth on you," Kanryuu grinned. "Pity you weren't younger."

Kaoru fought the urge to gag. "Fucking pedophile."

Because of people like him Dove had suffered.

He moved faster than her sluggish and unresponsive vision could see and Kaoru felt his hand connect solidly with her cheek, rocking her head back with the force of the blow.

"You will watch what you say if you don't want to get hurt," his eyes were narrowed.

Kaoru fought back a half-hysterical giggle. "Go ahead slap me around… You can't do anything can you if I'm not cowering and crying?" She made a tsking sound. "Dickhead can't get it up if I'm not afraid. Isn't that right?"

She tasted blood with his next blow and continued to giggle knowing that it would annoy the fuck out of him. "Come on is that all you got? You can't even hit that hard."

Kanryuu's expression was furious and he stepped away. Kaoru opened her mouth for another smart retort but closed it with a click of teeth at his next words.

"I'm going to give her to you to make her obedient. I have no need for a half-trained smartass Psychic."

Shit! Shit! And Shit!

Kaoru turned cold when she felt Iizuka look at her.

"Any restrictions?" Iizuka's voice was soft and far too eager for her liking.

"Alive and breathing." Kanryuu said. "And untouched."

Kaoru didn't know whether to feel better or not when some of the eagerness drained from Iizuka's eyes.

It wouldn't deter him she knew. He'd just be forced to be creative.

Vaguely Kaoru wondered what would happen if she threw up on them.

They wouldn't be pleased but she'd feel a hell of a lot better.

"Call me when you're done," Kaoru half-expected Kanryuu to pat Iizuka on the back.

He turned left the room closing the door behind him with an air of finality.

Ice settled in her stomach and she tensed.

"So I can do anything I want to you hmm?" Iizuka cocked his head at her.

"You can't touch!" Kaoru hated how desperate her voice sounded.

"What are you going to do?" Iizuka chuckled. "Tell Kanryuu?"

Kaoru snarled softly and reached for her power. It ricocheted off the barrier the Crown had placed on it and she yelped as it rebounded on her.

"Now don't do that," Iizuka murmured. "You'll just hurt yourself and burn that little brain of yours out and end up killing yourself. Now where would the fun be if you were dead?"

"Good point," Kaoru retorted. "If I'm dead I can't kill you."

Iizuka laughed.

'Should have made him a vegetable the second I met him,' Kaoru hissed to herself.

"I'd like to see you try to kill me." Iizuka grinned. "Tied down to a chair as you are… you look good tied up."

Kaoru twitched at the mental image he projected. "What are you doing?" She asked warily as he turned and walked over to a table pushed against the far wall, a small white box laid in the center of it.

"You'll see," she caught a flicker of a smile on his face.

X… the though whispered through her mind.

Kaoru froze. "Wunder… X…?"

"Heard you've been trying to wean yourself of Wunder," Iizuka opened the box and pulled out a syringe. "Can you do it the same for X?"

Kaoru's throat closed and all she was able to make was a soft whimper. The withdrawal had nearly killed her. She didn't want to know what Wunder X would do.

"No hold still and it won't hurt," Iizuka advanced on her with the syringe in hand.

Kaoru twisted desperately in her bindings ignoring the flare of pain along her dislocated shoulder.

"No, no, no, no… I told you to hold still," Iizuka reached out and grabbed her dislocated shoulder, his grip tight and digging into it.

Kaoru did her best to stifle her cry of pain.

He was nearly as bad as Kanryuu. The only thing that saved him from being as bad was the fact that he wasn't a pedophile.

"Now, let's see what reaction a newly non-Wunder addicted Psychic will have with Wunder X?"

"Let's not," Kaoru muttered.

Iizuka ignored her and jabbed the syringe into her arm.

Kaoru's body spasmed in response; heat scorched down her arm, not the warmth of Wunder but a hotter, raging pain. It spread through her and her vision went black. Dimly she realized she'd bitten her tongue in response to the pain… coppery blood sickly sweet and metallic.

Kaoru closed her eyes.

But it didn't stop the thoughts and images in her head.

000

Uno watched Kenshin carefully out of the corner of her eye. She half-wished he was raging or swearing or acting out and doing _something_. Not this cold hard silence that had fallen over him.

He hadn't spoken a word since Sano's team had arrived and was leaning against the doorframe, dressed in black his katana propped against him, his head was bowed, bangs falling into his eyes and except for the tense barely noticeable quiver, he was still.

'Scream!' She hissed at him. 'Tell us to hurry the fuck up! Do something! Do _something!_'

There were two kinds of anger she had seen in him. Hot, which meant you were going to die painfully. And cold. Given the choice between the two she'd choose hot every time. He'd just kill you in a fairly fast and relatively painless manner.

Cold?

Cold was calculating, almost detached. He'd kill you but it wouldn't be fast or painless. Cold anger was deadlier than hot because he'd take his time while killing you. You'd feel every cut into your body and he'd be slow about it too.

No it wasn't torture. But it was pretty damn close.

She'd only seen him like this before once, during a mission where Megumi had taken a bullet and appeared to be dead.

Kenshin's eyes had iced over and he'd taken his time killing the bastard who'd fired the gun.

His screams had echoed in her head for days afterward.

He'd only finished toying with him when he'd realized that Megumi wasn't dead and that they needed to get her to a hospital as quickly as possible if they wanted to keep her that way.

He was called the Battousai for a reason and she had a feeling tonight he was going to live up to that reputation.

"Do you have the coordinates yet?" His voice was soft but there was a note of steel in it.

Megumi nodded, "we've just located her. She's in the warehouse district of the City – hey get back here!" She sounded uncharacterically flustered.

"Give me the directions and I'll drive," Kenshin brushed past her heading toward the garage.

"Is that wise?" Uno murmured. "I could drive."

"Given the choice between you and him right now, I'd pick you." Sano muttered. "Go get into that car with him."

"Why?" Uno blinked.

"Because he's less likely to kill people if there's someone in the car with him; at least I'm hoping so."

"Ah," Uno muttered weakly. "Good point." She whirled and grabbed Takasugi and kissed him quickly.

Takasugi blinked, "what was that for?"

"Because getting into a car crash is a high probability right now." She explained, grabbed the sheet of directions out of Megumi's hand and dashed after Kenshin.

"Okay…" Takasugi murmured. "Everyone got their stuff? Good. Let's move."

000

Uno didn't know how long it took to get to where Kaoru was. Certainly quicker than it would have been than if they'd been driving normally. She kept her eyes closed and said prayers under her breath as they roared through the City. Kenshin was still silent next to her in the driver's seat and she didn't attempt to talk to him.

Her head snapped back against the headrest as the car jerked to a stop. Opening her eyes she saw the driver's seat was empty and Kenshin was already gone.

"Shit," she muttered. "Should I go after him or not?"

She settled back into the seat to wait for the others. He knew how to stay out of sight and take care of himself. And he wouldn't kill her by accident either.

"Hope he leaves Iizuka alive," she sighed. Kenshin wasn't the only one who wanted to see his head go rolling across the floor. She pressed the button to her communicator. "Hey guys? We're here. Kenshin's gone so you better haul ass if you want to get here in time to join in the mayhem."

000

Getting in was easy. Kenshin stuck to the shadows, looking down at the band around his wrist watching the red dot on it grow brighter and brighter with every step he took. As he neared a door it began to flash.

There.

Kenshin opened the door…

And then froze at the sight before him.

Kaoru was strapped to a chair, her eyes open and sightless, her head was lolling against her shoulder. She was still… too, too still… was she even breathing…?

"She's not too durable is she?"

Kenshin snarled as he spotted Iizuka leaning against the wall, looking utterly unconcerned.

"What did you to her?" He demanded.

"A little this and a little that…" Iizuka shrugged. "She didn't appear to enjoy it too much." He grinned suddenly, the expression sickening. "She screams really loud."

Kenshin's vision turned red as Iizuka strolled over where Kaoru was and cupped her cheek.

Kaoru remained unresponsive and silent.

"What did you do?" He repeated. His sword was drawn and in his hand almost before he realized it.

"To her?" Iizuka's smile turned secretive, the smile of a man who was looking death in the face and was unafraid. "Everything I could think of."

Kenshin snarled the urges to kill him right then and there or beat some answers out of Iizuka warring within him.

Iizuka decided his fate the instant he pressed a kiss against Kaoru's mouth.

Ever so faintly Kenshin heard a whimper and a single tear ran down her cheek. Other than that she was as immobile as before.

Kenshin didn't remember moving, didn't remember yanking Iizuka away from Kaoru and throwing him across the room. Didn't remember killing him. All he remembered was the spray of crimson that painted the wall and the cackling sound of Iizuka laughing.

And then silence.

Kenshin turned and saw that Kaoru hadn't even reacted.

Her eyes were glassy and staring and her face was pale… too pale.

The sword dropped from his hand as he stepped toward her. It hit ground with a loud clatter.

"Kaoru?" Kenshin touched her cheek and flinched. She felt like ice.

He brushed his hand over the Crown bound across her temple and it dropped from her forehead. The sound of it hitting the ground seemed louder than the clang the sword had made as it fell.

"Kaoru?" Kenshin tried again.

There was nothing in her eyes…If eyes were the window to the soul than Kaoru wasn't at home.

Kenshin bit his lip and looked her over quickly. There was a small red bruise at the crook of her arm. They had given her something. He just didn't know what.

"Kaoru," Kenshin repeated for the third time. Tentatively he reached out and touched his mind with hers.

There was nothing there.

Her shields were broken. There was nothing there to keep out the thoughts and voices of others. He probed deeper and felt Kaoru convulse.

Images ran through his head almost too quickly to comprehend.

Iizuka….

Kenshin felt his stomach twist as he caught several memories of what exactly the bastard had done to her.

He should have killed him slower, longer and more painfully.

At the back of his mind he wondered if there was someway to resurrect the fucktard and then kill him again. He'd settle for using his corpse for target practice with Iizuka's own gun. It'd be nicely ironic.

'Kaoru!' Kenshin called.

There was a flicker of something in response.

Kenshin took off after it.

Down he spiraled through her mind, through the layers of her mindscape and consciousness.

Kaoru had pulled so deep inside of herself that her body had reacted by sending herself into a catatonic state.

It felt like it took forever for Kenshin to reach her.

Everything shifted momentarily and then he found himself in a garden.

He blinked.

This was where Kaoru was hiding?

'Kaoru!' Kenshin yelled.

Silence.

And then…

'Go away!'

Kenshin turned and felt a start of surprise. Seated on bench where previously there hadn't been a bench was Kaoru.

She was wearing a white shift-dress, her hair unbound and loose around her shoulders. In one hand she was holding a rose and when she turned toward him unease roiled through him. The pupils and whites of her eyes had disappeared until he found himself looking into solid orbs of blue.

'Who are you?' She tilted her head, birdlike at him.

Kenshin's throat felt dry. 'I'm Kenshin.'

'Ken…shin…' She repeated slowly. 'No you are not… You are Battousai…'

'What do you remember?' Kenshin murmured.

Her blue-blue eyes closed. 'Pain…Hurt…' She whimpered softly.

'Let me bring you back.' Kenshin said softly, taking a step toward her.

She flinched. 'No!'

Kenshin froze.

'It hurts too much,' she buried her face into the petals of the rose that she held. 'I need to stay here… I need to wait for Dove…'

'Dove is dead,' Kenshin murmured.

Kaoru opened one eye and blinked slowly at him. 'I know that, I do… Dove is dead… Her mother too… Her mother died a long time ago…She died from drugs… Drugs and flowers… Drugs and flowers… Expensive drugs and expensive flowers… No money for food… Dove never had food…' Her words took on a sickening singsong quality.

'Kaoru,' Kenshin took another step toward her and she flinched, hand closing tightly around the rose she held. The thorns cut into her skin and a trickle of blood flowed over her hand.

'Let me help you,' Kenshin murmured.

Kaoru cocked her head at him. 'You help Battousai? You do not help. You do not know how to help.'

'I can learn,' Kenshin said.

Kaoru nodded absentmindedly. 'You do learn fast, that I will say that for you.' She blinked owlishly at him, peering closely at his face. Her blue-blue eyes widened slightly. 'You are not human.'

'Yes I am,' Kenshin replied firmly.

Kaoru shook her head, 'no you are not. You are a Psychic… A Psychic yes … but one I have never encountered before…'

'I am not a Psychic.' Kenshin told her.

She laughed softly. 'Then what are you doing here? Tell me Battousai-who-is-not-a-Psychic.'

'I'm bringing you home.'

'Here is home.' Kaoru replied. 'I am home.'

'This is not your home,' Kenshin replied.

'It is,' she said firmly.

'Kaoru,' Kenshin said softly inching toward her.

'Don't…' her voice was hushed. 'Don't bring me back. Don't make me go back…. Please…' Tears filled those blue on blue eyes and the rose she was holding fell to the ground.

'This is not your home,' Kenshin repeated. 'Your home is not here, I need to bring you home.'

He concentrated on projecting images. Of the compound, Megumi and Sano, Uno and Takasugi. The Dojo and even her damned punching bag… and lastly himself.

'No!' Kaoru cried shaking her head. 'Not home! Leiko and Ricky and Dove were home! But they died in a fire… fire… fire… fire burning bright in the night…' She laughed slightly hysterically.

'You have a new home…' Kenshin murmured. Almost there… if he could just grab her…

'I don't,' Kaoru continued to insist.

'You do,' Kenshin took another step toward her.

Kaoru froze as she suddenly realized he was closer than he had previously been. Kenshin saw her tensed to flee and lunged grabbing her wrist before she could put any distances between them or attempt to run.

Kaoru screamed at his touch.

Kenshin half-expected her to attempt to fight him but instead found her collapsing onto the ground.

He caught her just barely.

She shuddered, skin spasming where he touched her.

'Don't…' she said brokenly.

'I'm not going to hurt you,' Kenshin said softly.

'Everyone hurts me… everything hurts me…' Kaoru closed her eyes, head bowing and hair falling across her face. 'Please don't bring me back… leave me in my garden…'

'I can't,' Kenshin said.

'You can,' she breathed. She raised her head, blue-blue eyes tinged with silver of unshed tears.

'I can't.' Kenshin replied. 'Don't ask me to, I won't.'

Kaoru's eyes dimmed turning nearly gray.

'Come with me,' Kenshin's voice had a note of pleading and her eyes widened at it.

'It hurts,' Kaoru whimpered.

'I won't let you be hurt,' Kenshin told her.

'Promises Battousai?' She tilted her head slightly.

'Yes.'

'You should not make promises that you cannot keep, that you should not.'

'I'll make it and I'll keep it.' Kenshin said firmly.

Kaoru closed her eyes. 'Bastard.'

For a second she almost sounded like her old self.

Kenshin's lips quirked slightly. 'Not arguing with you.'

Kaoru sighed and went limp against him.

'Ready?'

'No,' she said.

She whimpered softly as his grip shifted so that he was holding her more firmly.

'Hold still,' he murmured.

He felt her nod and then concentrated on leaving the mindscape. The image of the garden around them rippled like the surface of a pond and then dissolved into nothingness. Steadily Kenshin drew them upwards through the levels of her mind. Fast enough to make it short but not slow enough to give her a chance to think about getting away.

There was a shifting sensation and when Kenshin opened his eyes he was back in his body again.

Kaoru was stirring faintly, eyelids twitching flashes of blue showing. She opened them slowly. Kenshin saw that her pupil was still a pinprick but the whites were there and not that all encompassing blue they had been before.

Her eyes flew open and she tensed. She opened her mouth and began to scream.

"Kaoru!" Kenshin said over the sound of her screams.

She jerked and stopped mid-scream. "Kenshin…?" Her voice was faint.

"Yes," he said. She blinked and he saw her eyes focus on him.

"I…Ii…" She choked, shuddering.

"Dead," Kenshin moved slightly so that her line of sight was blocked.

"Dead?" There was a not of childlike disbelief in Kaoru's voice.

"Yes," Kenshin said softly.

"Who…?" Kaoru's eyes closed and she shuddered.

"I did," Kenshin grit his teeth. Should have done is slower…

"You?" Kaoru opened her eyes and blinked.

"Let's get you out of here." Kenshin undid the straps tying her to the chair hissing at the swelling of the arm that she had previously dislocated. He needed to get that back in to a sling before more damage was done to it.

"Does anything hurt?" Kenshin asked as he undid the last strap and stepped away.

"No," Kaoru said and then cursed. "Fuck it does now. Thank you for that."

She yelped as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to her feet.

"Kenshin," there was a note of panic in her voice.

"You won't be able stand much less walk right now." He growled when he remembered the bruising on the inside of her arm. "They also shot you up with something and we don't know what it is or how long it will take to become affective."

"X…" Kaoru murmured faintly.

Kenshin paused, "what?"

"Wunder X," Kaoru sighed.

Kenshin started to curse.

"I've already rode through the most of it." Kaoru shuddered. "Now it just has to work itself out of my system."

"When?" Kenshin murmured.

"Whenever I drop to the ground with blood pouring from my ears sounds like a good bet." Kaoru muttered.

Kenshin was snarling and Kaoru blinked at him.

"Sarcasm is a survival skill," she muttered. "Otherwise I'd be in a nice padded room and in a straight jacket complaining that the bats circling around my head were being mean to me."

Kenshin snorted and waited for her to get her feet under before starting forward.

Kaoru suddenly tensed against him and started to curse. "Is that…?" Her eyes went impossibly wide.

"Yes," Kenshin said grimly. "Should have killed him a hell of a lot slower."

Kaoru sucked in a breath, face paling. "He's dead?"

"Yes." Kenshin firmly.

For a second Kaoru's eyes darkened blue and then she blinked and shook her head with some effort.

"Let's go." Kenshin stepped forward and Kaoru mimicked him a beat later.

She began to shake slightly as they neared Iizuka.

Kenshin hissed.

Her shields were still ripped apart from the Crown and Kenshin cursed softly at the quick flicker of images that she broadcasted.

Carefully he extended his own shields over her.

Kaoru stilled eyes widening if even possible a bit more, "Kenshin?"

"Just keep moving. You don't have time to put your own shields back up."

She nodded, biting at her lip. "The others?"

"Pretty sure they've arrived, and if they are then they're finishing off the rest of Kanryuu's men and knowing Katsu burning the place down."

"Sano's team came too?" Kaoru blinked.

"Yes."

Kaoru could just imagine Sano's reaction. Several people were going to end up dead after being beaten into a fine messy pulp.

And speak of the devil and he shall appear.

Just as they walked out of the door they nearly ran into Sano, who flailed and skidded to keep from crashing into them. The bandages around his hand were bloody and it didn't appear to be his blood. He had a fierce grin on his face that faded into concern when he saw Kaoru, and Kaoru thought the only thing keeping him from grabbing her and hugging was how pale and shaken she looked.

"Hi Sano," Kaoru attempted a grin.

"Hey Missy," Sano's eyes flickered over to Kenshin and his mouth pulled into a grim line.

"Status?" Kenshin asked softly.

"Kanryuu's dead. Katsu is off placing bombs and all we need is your word to move out and he'll detonate them. Uno and Takasugi are taking care of various idiotic goons and Megumi is infecting the main computer with a wipe-out virus, in the event that after this hellhole burns down that something is salvable."

"Good," Kenshin nodded. "Move out."

Sano touched the microphone attached to his ear. "Kenshin's got her. Get your asses in gear. Katsu do your stuff."

A split second later there was the sound of bombs going off.

"Works fast," Sano shook his head. "Let's go before everything falls down around us."

Kaoru yelped as Kenshin suddenly picked her up.

"Put me down!" She screeched. "Now! Or I will kick your ass!"

"Faster this way," Kenshin said, leaping into a run with Sano just behind to cover his back.

Kaoru narrowed her eyes and weighed the pros and cons. Pro – she'd get a punch in and Kenshin would end up with a nicely bloody nose. Con – she'd stay longer than she'd like (longer being more than a second) in this place.

Kaoru closed her eyes feeling lightheaded as everything blurred around her. The sounds of bombs going off and the snap and creak of things breaking filled her ears. Somewhere something was burning and thick smoke was beginning to flood the corridors.

"Almost out," Kenshin said softly.

Kaoru nodded, eyes still closed.

She felt Sano dart past Kenshin and there was the sound of something breaking.

She opened her eyes and proceeded to roll them. "Sano don't tell me you just took out a wall."

"It was breaking apart anyway," Sano grinned. "And oh look there's everybody else!"

"I hope you broke your hand," Kaoru muttered.

Cold night air hit her face as they got clear of the compound.

The cars were just a black shadow in the night. Faintly Kaoru could make out the outlines of the others – black, night-hunting gear… secret mission stuff…Less visible than the red police uniforms…

There was a sudden crash behind them and Kaoru peered over Kenshin's shoulder as the compound suddenly caved in upon itself, flames shooting off sparks through the crashing timbers.

Somewhere in that place was Iizuka.

Kaoru hoped he rotted in hell.

Kenshin didn't put her down until they reached the car. He then grabbed a blanket from under the seat and proceeded to tuck it snugly around her.

Kaoru snarled at him and would have punched him except her hands were completely enclosed in the blanket.

It was warm too… She sighed and closed her eyes feeling incredibly tired.

"We'll be home in a few moments," Kenshin said.

He then closed the door; Kaoru thought it was a good thing if he persisted in staying less than five feet next to her she would have hurt him.

The front doors opened and Kaoru looked up to see Kenshin in the driver seat and Megumi sitting next to him.

"You look like shit." Megumi said.

"You don't look all that better yourself."

Megumi snorted softly. Her face had a smudge of ash across her cheek, and it was nearly as pale as Kaoru's own. Her usually tidy hair was in disarray around her face and her lipstick was gone.

Kaoru suddenly had the feeling she wasn't the only one that had monsters in the closet.

She closed her eyes and was in a fitful half doze when they arrived at the compound.

She snarled at Kenshin as he tried to pick her up. She worked her hands free of the blanket and allowed him to wrap an arm around her waist but since her feet were on the ground she tolerated it. She would have kicked him hard if he'd attempted to pick up her again.

"Come on Kaoru," Megumi said softly, taking her uninjured arm as they entered the compound and tugging her lose of Kenshin.

"Kenshin, stay here in the kitchen and make tea or something." Her eyes narrowed. "You will not be helping by hovering over us and Kaoru will probably feel better without a male around."

Kenshin's eyes narrowed but he nodded shortly.

Megumi led Kaoru to her room and was gone for nearly an hour.

When she appeared Kaoru wasn't with her and by that time the others had arrived and Kenshin had made coffee for those who drank it, tea for the others and set out bread, cheese and various meats for sandwiches.

"How is she?" Megumi found herself nearly pounced as she walked in.

"Resting," Megumi snapped. "I checked her over and put her arm back into a sling and gave her a sedative so now she's sleeping. Pour me some coffee will you?"

Kenshin poured her some coffee and handed it to her. Megumi accepted with a sigh and settled down in an empty chair, cradling it between her hands.

"So?" Kenshin pressed, eyes flashing.

"Sit down before I tell Sano to sit on you." Megumi gritted her teeth.

Kenshin growled softly but sat down as she told him. A brief grin flitted over Sano's face and then faded; he pulled his chair over next to Megumi's and wrapped an arm around her waist.

She sighed and closed her eyes, leaning against him slightly.

"There doesn't appear to be much physical trauma." Megumi said, opening her eyes slightly. "That doesn't mean something didn't occur…. There are other ways to harm a Psychic… A Telepath like Kaoru especially..." Her hands tightened around the mug she was holding.

Kenshin growled softly.

"Kanryuu…." Megumi sighed. "He liked Psychics… Telepaths especially. He got off on the fact that they could see his fantasies and what he was thinking…" She raised the mug to her mouth and took a sip.

The weight of it was the only thing that kept her hands from shaking. "I should have realized earlier what was going on, with the way Kaoru was reacting to Iizuka." Her mouth tightened.

"So he didn't…?" Sano asked softly.

Megumi snorted slightly. "Kanryuu couldn't get it up unless he knew you were afraid of him. Kaoru… you know how she is…" Her mouth quirked slightly. "She probably laughed her ass off at him to piss him off."

"So she wasn't raped?" Sano murmured.

"Physically no… mentally…?" Megumi looked up at Kenshin.

"Iizuka," Kenshin said it like a curse.

"Kanryuu most likely ordered him…" Megumi hissed softly.

"How do you know this?" Kenshin asked.

Megumi set her coffee down and rubbed at her temples. "My family had a rehab clinic for druggies. Helped them work through withdrawals, gave them food and a place to stay… Bad news for Kanryuu – you can't do business if all your clients are getting clean… They killed my parents… I was perhaps a bit younger than Kaoru… Bastard took me hostage…"

Sano hissed softly. "Did he…?"

Megumi shook her head, "I had two things going for me. I wasn't Psychic and though I was young I wasn't as young as he liked… usually. No, I was the doctor to his… girls." She shuddered slightly.

Sano was growling.

Megumi jabbed an elbow into his stomach. "Can't breathe idiot."

His arm around her loosened slightly but he still looked pissed.

"How long?" Kenshin asked.

"Eight months," Megumi's eyes were dark. "Then Hiko got me out and I ended up being bounced from team to team before coming here."

"They shot her up with Wunder X," Kenshin said softly.

"It's going to be hell all over again for her," Megumi murmured. "It's worse if you're clean and then you get hooked again… and from what we know X is more potent than the original Wunder…"

"How long until it starts?" Kenshin asked.

"I don't know," Megumi bit her lip.

"Can I?" Kenshin jerked his head in the direction of Megumi's bedroom.

"She's asleep." Megumi murmured.

She shook her head at the look on his face. "Fine, but don't wake her up."

There was a sudden crashing sound followed by the sound of screaming.

"Fuck!" Megumi leapt to her feet.

Kenshin was already gone.

When Megumi and Sano got there they found Kenshin on the floor, pinning down a seizing Kaoru. There was a bruise on the side of her face and a trickle of blood at the corner of her mouth where she had bitten her tongue.

She shrieked, body spasming and her eyes were wide and sightless.

"Get her on the bed." Megumi said tensely.

Sano nodded and brushed past her to help Kenshin put her on the bed.

They couldn't tie her down because of her wrenched shoulder, but Megumi found a wad of gauze and slipped it between her teeth to keep her from biting through her tongue.

'Hurts!' Kaoru screamed. She broadcasted so loudly that she broke through the shields Kenshin had placed around her and even Megumi and Sano flinched as her voice ripped through their minds.

'I know,' Kenshin replied softly as he thickened the shields.

'You said it wouldn't hurt. You promised.' Kaoru's voice was a sob.

There was a wrenching twisting sensation and Kenshin cursed as he felt her attempt to flee and head deeper within herself.

'Don't!' Kenshin reached for her and felt her dodge, slipping through his grasp.

When he opened his 'eyes' he was in a small dirty alley.

Kaoru was curled up in a fetal position on the ground, shaking.

'Kaoru…' Her eyes flickered open as he approached her and he choked back a curse at the wash of blue her eyes had shifted to.

'Hurts….' She whimpered.

'I know,' Kenshin murmured softly.

'Promised…' She sobbed. 'You promised that you did...'

'I haven't broken it,' Kenshin said softly.

'You haven't kept it either, that you have not.' Kaoru whispered.

Kenshin felt his heart twist and he sidestepped some trash strewn on the ground. 'What is this place Kaoru?'

'Where I first met Dove…' Kaoru murmured softly. 'Bad cop raped her, slit her throat, and left her for dead…' She giggled slightly. 'I killed the bad cop… so many bad cops…Iizuka was a bad cop… I should kill Iizuka…'

'Iizuka is dead,' Kenshin said. 'I killed him.'

'No, no…' Kaoru shook her head. Carefully she raised a shaking hand and laid it against her temple. 'He's still there… in my head… Iizuka… Gohei… All of them…'

'Dead,' Kenshin told her. 'All of them are dead. They can't hurt you anymore.'

'Can't they?' Kaoru lifted her head slightly, and Kenshin repressed a flinch at the dark sightless blue her eyes had become. 'Memories still alive… Memories hurt…'

'Only if you let them,' Kenshin stepped carefully toward her.

'You let them Battousai,' Kaoru said. 'Twist and hurt you they did.'

'Not anymore.' Kenshin crouched down beside her. 'Don't let them do the same to you.'

'They already have,' Kaoru sighed, closing her eyes.

'No they haven't,' Kenshin said softly.

'Haven't they…?' Kaoru opened her eyes and seemed to be looking past him, through him.

Kenshin tensed and turned his head following her line of sight.

Gohei his eyes milky and sightless.

Iizuka a mocking grin on his face.

A cop Kenshin didn't recognize his head flopping on his shoulder, the tendons in his neck severed and cut, no longer able to support his head… blood stained his shirt.

There were more behind them, faint as smoke and slightly transparent.

The scent of blood filled the alley.

Kaoru whimpered and her hands closed tightly on his shirt, burying her face in his chest, shaking.

'Shh…' Kenshin murmured.

'Can they still not hurt me Battousai?' She asked softly her words barely above a whisper.

'They can't,' Kenshin said firmly.

Kaoru laughed quietly, harshly. 'I see them every time I close my eyes. What do you see when you close your eyes Battousai? Those you have killed? Do you smell the blood? Hear their screams?'

'Yes,' Kenshin's voice was soft.

'I don't think I will ever be able to repent.' Kaoru lifted her head to look at him. 'You have so many dead on your soul. Blood on your hands. More than I… how will you make the screams fade?'

The smell of blood in the alley grew suddenly stronger, a faintly sweet metallic smell.

Kenshin's eyes widened as he saw his hands had suddenly become covered with blood.

'You see?' Kaoru said softly. She reached up and laid her own blood-covered hand against his cheek. Carefully she traced his scars with a finger; Kenshin felt blood trickle down the side of his face.

She cocked her head birdlike at him, blue-blue eyes narrowed. Slowly and deliberately she placed a kiss against the corner of his mouth.

There was a sad smile on her face when she pulled away.

'How will you repent…Battousai? ... Kenshin… Shinta?'

'No one has called me Shinta in a long time,' Kenshin's throat felt suddenly tight.

'I know,' the smile didn't leave her face. 'You couldn't have survived as Shinta…So you became Kenshin…And because you were Kenshin you became Battousai…'

'I am still Kenshin.'

'And yet Battousai…Puppet…Dancing to the strings that pull you.'

She tucked her head under his chin, arms sliding down to wrap around his waist tightly.

'Hurt,' she sighed softly.

'I won't let you be hurt anymore.' Kenshin told her.

'You can't keep me from being hurt that you can't.' She murmured.

Kenshin could feel the dead approaching…A dragging thump and the faint sound of cackling. The scent of blood and decay washed over them.

Kaoru sucked in a breathed and screwed her eyes shut; going so tense against him he almost thought she'd snap.

He pressed a kiss against her forehead. 'I promised,' he reminded her softly.

She nodded and her grip loosened. Kenshin pressed another kiss against her forehead before letting her go.

She wrapped her arms around her legs, tucking her knees under her chin, rocking back and forth silently and watching him as he got to his feet.

Kenshin stepped toward the specters and felt his sword materialize in his hand.

This time he took the time he should have taken.

He cut through the cop who'd hurt Dove, slicing his already half-severed head clean off his shoulders before sinking the blade of the sword into his heart and proceeding to cut his arms and legs off.

Gohei he hamstrung and then switched the blade's edge so that he broke the bones in his hands before cutting them completely off. He then sank the sword into Gohei's mid-section before dragging it upward and sent his head flying.

And now Iizuka…

Kenshin shifted his grip on the sword as he stalked toward him.

Iizuka blinked at him, giggling slightly. There were flecks of spittle at the corners of his mouth and his nails seemed long and yellowed. His eyes were slightly red-tinged and the pupils elongated.

So this was how Kaoru saw him.

Kenshin blurred.

Iizuka screamed as Kenshin proceeded to do to him what he had done to Gohei – only slower. He through the tendons in the back of his legs and ripped upward until he came to the back of his knees and then broke his kneecaps.

Iizuka howled as he crumbled to the ground no longer able to stand.

Kenshin stepped solidly on one of his hands, feeling the bones crunch beneath his feet. He then stepped on the other hand, breaking the bones in that hand. With cold precision he cut off his fingers one at a time.

Kenshin broke his arms. 'For every thought you ever had about her.'

The ribs on his left side were broken next followed by the ones on his right.

There was a bubble of blood at the corner of Iizuka's mouth. One of the ribs must have punctuated a lung…

Kenshin sliced across his stomach not-so-neatly disemboweling him.

Grabbing him by his neck he flung him against the wall.

'For hurting her.'

Kenshin imbedded the sword in his heart. Calling his wakazashi to his hand he cut it over Iizuka's face and across his eyes before slitting his throat.

Kaoru was watching him soundlessly.

'Dead?' Her voice was childlike and small. Her eyes were huge in her face.

'Dead,' Kenshin confirmed.

She closed her eyes and gave a shuddering breath.

Kenshin let the wakazashi drop from his hand. It faded away into the air.

'You promised,' she said softly.

'I kept it,' Kenshin replied.

'You did,' she said softly.

'Come back?' Kenshin extended a hand toward her.

She looked at his hand and then glanced upward, peering into his face.

'Violet…' she murmured.

Kenshin blinked.

'You eyes are violet,' a small smile spread across her face and she gently placed her hands in his.

Kenshin pulled her to her feet and wrapped an arm around her waist. 'Let's go.'

She nodded and closed her eyes, resting her head against his shoulder.

Everything faded and blurred around them and there was a tugging sensation as Kenshin pulled them free from her mind.

Spots danced in front of Kenshin's eyes as he opened them.

Kaoru made a faint moaning sound and her eyes flickered open. They were a clear and regular blue if slightly bloodshot.

"Kenshin?"

Kenshin jerked his head up as he heard Sano's voice. How had he ended up on the bed? He didn't remember falling.

"Kaoru?" He murmured.

"Fuck. I Feel like I'm being run over by a truck repeatedly." She groaned and attempted to lift her head. "Oh fuck again. Welcome to migraine-land."

Kenshin pushed himself off the bed and attempted to stand, his legs felt weak.

Megumi pushed him in the direction of a chair as she stepped to Kaoru's side.

"What happened?" Sano asked as he set him down on a chair. "One minute Kaoru is seizing and then you and her are both still and you're unconscious."

Kenshin shook his head, "long story."

"I'll take your word for it," Sano eyed him.

"You're pulse is really, really fast." Megumi's lips were pressed into a thin line.

"My heart feels like it's trying to jump out of my chest." Kaoru smiled faintly.

"I'm not going to give you anything," Megumi shook her head. "I think I kick started your withdrawal when I gave you the sedative."

"No drugs," Kaoru said firmly.

"No drugs," Megumi agreed. "You're just going to have to ride it out… again."

"Joy," Kaoru sighed. "I hate being an addiction-prone-Psychic-bitch."

"You are an addiction-prone-Psychic bitch." Sano said cheerfully.

"Love you too." Kaoru stuck her tongue out at him.

She sighed and curled up under the sheets. "Do all of you need to be hovering over me?"

"Sano go make tea or coffee and bring something up for Kaoru to eat." Megumi ordered.

Sano nodded and left.

"I'm staying." Kenshin said firmly.

Megumi nodded wordlessly and went over to her medicine cabinet and started pulling out things in preparation. If the first time Kaoru went through withdrawal was bad, this was going to be even worse.

Kaoru closed her eyes. "Megumi what was the duration between my seizures at the worst bit?"

"Twenty minutes or so. For nearly three hours." Megumi replied.

Kaoru nodded. "Half it then. This is going to be bad…" She could already feel her muscles starting to clench and twitch.

"We can't tie you down like before because of your arm," Kenshin told her.

Kaoru opened an eye. "I know that… Make sure I don't fall off the bed okay? Otherwise put me on the floor."

Kenshin's jaw clenched. "I will."

"Thanks," Kaoru reached for the piece of gauze that they were using as a gag, her hand shaking. She slipped it between her teeth, biting down hard, just as her body jerked and spasmed violently.

At least this time her power was too wearied and weak to attempt to rip itself to shreds…

Kaoru spared a grateful thought for that.

No, her withdrawal from Wunder X was going to be entirely physical.


	13. Chapter 13

It hurt.

By all that was holy it hurt.

Kaoru thought she had prepared herself for the pain.

She hadn't.

She hadn't expected it to be this bad. Or for it to hurt this much. The pain ripped through her and as she opened her mouth to scream she found she had no voice. Her arm was numb, its own pain nothing compared to the one that was now wracking her body.

Her body felt like it was on fire. The blood in her veins was boiling.

Scorching heat...

Searing heat…

There was a touch against her forehead.

A woman's hand...

Megumi… her thoughts formed the name a moment later. Her hand was cool in contrast to the fire that was burning up her body and her mouth formed to make words, to say thank you or something of that nature.

No sound came out.

All she could do was let the pain wash over her. Let it wash over her and attempt to ride it out. There was nothing else she could do. Distantly she was aware of her body shaking and shuddering, her convulsions steadily starting to worsen as the pain overtook her.

Pain.

So much pain.

It was almost enough to make her want to ask for Wunder to make the pain go away. Now, Kaoru knew why the withdrawals failed so often. The pain forced the quitting Wunder-addicts back onto the drug in an effort to escape.

Was there an escape? Kaoru wasn't sure.

She wanted to curl up into a ball but her limbs felt frozen, trapped a never-ending cycle of seizures. Over and over again… Snap, shake, flop against the bed. Kaoru felt as fragile as glass. She was certain that she would shatter if touched, broken into sharp-edged fragments that would cut anyone who attempted to help her.

The thoughts against her battered shields made her head ache. Not loud thoughts… not bad thoughts… but she couldn't deal with them right now. She just could not deal with them right now….

A sound reached her ears, the first she had heard since the seizures had begun once more. A single strained, pained whimper. It took her a moment to realize that it was her making the noise. She sounded like a kitten, a kicked dog. Kaoru wanted to laugh. She felt like one. Like a dog that had been beaten one too many times.

'Kaoru?' Kenshin's voice.

'Hurt,' it was the only reply she could manage.

She heard him growl in her head and nearly told him to fuck off and get out of her head and back into his own mind. She caught the briefest flash of what she looked like and tried to keep herself from flinching: a broken, flopping rag doll upon the bed.

She couldn't feel herself doing it. The pain deadened any such feeling and watching herself convulse through his eyes was unnerving. With effort she gave a little shove and the images faded from her head.

That little effort cost her dearly. It made sparks dance across the backs of her closed eyelids. She didn't have the power for it. She didn't have the power for anything. She couldn't hold up a shield to keep the thoughts out of her head, nor could she give a mental wallop. Her power was tired, broken. It needed to rest and recharge itself.

She could hear Megumi faintly, a buzz of thoughts of medical mumbo-jumbo that didn't make sense to her and a faint trace of aggravation. Sano was mentally cursing, she counted that every third word was a swear word.

Kenshin was a solid blank wall. His thoughts were carefully contained behind shields. Fainter like a murmur in another room she could hear Takasugi and Uno, she was too tired to grasp their words and they formed a white noise at the back of her skull.

One particularly nasty convulsion had her head snapping back and she yelped. How long had the seizure been going on? Kaoru had lost track of time ages ago. It could have lasted a minute, or an hour, or three hours.

It could have lasted forever…

'Get a grip,' she hissed to herself. She jerked again, slamming down on the bed and sending a shock up her injured arm that made her head spin with pain.

Kaoru didn't attempt to open her eyes. She could almost feel the press of blackness against her eyelids and knew from Megumi's thoughts that the lights had been dimmed. She was glad for it.

'Get a grip!' She hissed again and attempted to gather her scattered thoughts. It didn't work. It wouldn't work. The pain was making everything go to pieces.

'Literally,' Kaoru sighed in agreement with her last thought. One good hard jolt and she'd shatter. Wasn't there a children's rhyme or something that went along with that? One of the few things she remembered from the nuns. It involved an egg…she remembered it in fragments. Something along the lines of Humpty Dumpty and failing… falling… from a wall? He had fallen and no one had been able to put him back to together.

He had been shattered and broken…. Poor Humpty Dumpty.

Kaoru wondered if she shattered if anyone would be able to put her back together again. Would anyone try to put her back together or would they just leave her a broken, burnt out husk?

The latter seemed more likely than anything else.

Her thoughts formed an almost sickening sing-song in her head. 'Wunder-addicts can't get off Wunder at all. Wunder-addict had the worst kind of fall. None of the policemen wanted to help put Wunder-addict back together again...'

Hopefully no one would ever ask her to write children's stories, Kaoru fought down the hysteria tingeing that thought.

She was going crazy. Slowly going crazy. The pain was going to make her insane. Kaoru wondered if she even managed to get through this would there be anything left. Would she spend the rest of her life in a padded cell rocking back and forth, her brain burned to nothing?

The pain was building now, breaking over her like a wave upon sand. Distantly Kaoru was aware of her body arching and straining, her back bowed, head touching the bed as yet another seizure washed over her.

Then it was suddenly and abruptly gone.

Kaoru collapsed onto the bed.

The pain withdrew just like a wave would, gong back into the sea, leaving behind only a dull throbbing ache to remind her it had ever been there in the first place. The sound of her panting was loud in her ears and her eyelids felt like they had weights attached to them.

It was a struggle to open her eyes and the room spun around her crazily in a mishmash of blurred shapes. She blinked several times and the images around her steadily turned sharper and clearer, more distinct.

She made out Megumi's face, her name coming to her a moment later. Her thoughts felt disconnected and slow. Kenshin was behind her and she almost flinched at the dark look on his face. He was so pissed at her she was half tempted to tell him to fuck off and go away. She didn't want to deal with him being a bastard right now. She had enough to deal with.

Uno and Takasugi along with Sano had cleared the room she could faintly hear their thoughts coming from downstairs and they cut into her brain like glass, she flinched despite herself.

"How are you?" Megumi asked. She had whispered the question the words were loud enough to sound as if she had been screaming.

Kaoru flinched despite herself. "Been… better…" She admitted a moment later after struggling to form the words. Her throat felt raw and parched and she licked her lips and swallowed experimentally.

Her body was still numb. She recognized the symptoms as not a good thing. It meant her body was so hurt it had just shut down. Once her body started to heal the pain would rush back and she'd been in a world of hurt.

Megumi moved and Kaoru's eyes followed her sluggishly as she approached her. Carefully Megumi gripped her wrist and counted her pulse, her mouth pulled into a thin line. "You're pulse is erratic and extremely fast."

"Feels like it," Kaoru murmured. "Not… a good thing?"

"No."

"Ah," Kaoru let her eyelids shut. They felt so heavy. "Didn't think it was…"

"You're in bad shape," Kaoru was almost grateful to Megumi for not trying to sugarcoat it.

"Tell me something I don't know…"

"It's only round one of your withdrawal."

"Ah," Kaoru was pretty sure the word was intelligible so she made another sound of agreement.

"Kaoru?"

A touch against her cheek made her open her eyes again.

Megumi looked worried. "Stay with me."

"…Tired…"

"I know… but fight it okay?"

"Sick…" Kaoru shook her head. "…Tired…"

"Kaoru?"

"Let… me… rest… few… moment…" Kaoru's eyes closed and she sank into the darkness. It was pain-free and warm and she welcomed it. Spiraling downward, farther and farther she welcomed it, let it wash over her and cover her.

"Kaoru!" This time it wasn't Megumi who called.

She had already vanished.

The sound of the monitor going flat filled the room.

Her heart had stopped.

000

It was dark; Kaoru's eyes narrowed and she attempted to peer through the darkness that surrounded her. Everything was in shadow and it made it hard to see. Where was she? She wondered. What was she in anyway?

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust but she managed to make out the shapes of what surrounded her.

Trees…

A forest?

What was she doing in a forest of all things?

It was cold too.

As if summoned by her thoughts a wind blew and she yelped and wrapped her arms around herself tightly. She might as well keep moving. Gritting her teeth at another gust of wind, Kaoru followed the path that formed beneath her feet into the woods and into the inky darkness.

The wind blew again and carried on it the sound of a name but she was already too far to have heard it.

000

Kenshin snarled and probed at Kaoru. There was no response. Nothing, her mind was blank. Completely vacant and empty, it was like before when she had disappeared into herself.

Like before…

He wouldn't let it be like before…

He pushed harder and felt her mind wrap around him. Tapping into that part of himself he had come to realize could communicate and work things mind-to-mind, he braced himself. His vision darkened and silence fell around him as he left his body and spiraled downward through the levels of her mind, chasing after her.

Too much shit happened to her for her to just give up and fade away, he'd drag her back kicking and screaming if he had to. She was not going to die that easily. He wouldn't let her.

'Idiot,' he hissed as the darkness enveloped him. 'You give up now and I'll kill you myself.'

000

When Kenshin opened his eyes again, it was to darkness.

Everything was covered in shadow, dark inky blackness encased everything. He waited a moment for his eyes to adjust. As they did he found that he was in a forest of some sort. At least it was better than that damnable garden. And it wasn't that dirty alley of the dead and monsters.

It was quiet, and the silence made the hairs on the back of his neck rise. Unnaturally quiet. Even in the dead of night there should have been some sound. There was no wind, no rustle of leaves or animal sounds. It was still and silent as a grave and it set his teeth on edge.

Where was she? Where could she be hiding? Where had she fled to in an effort to escape the pain the withdrawal was causing her?

He would get nowhere just standing here and made himself walk. Underneath his feet a path appeared, snaking between two trees ahead of him and disappearing into the blackness.

Kenshin followed it.

He had no other choice.

How long he walked, Kenshin did not know.

The path seemed to go on forever and was unending. The trees around him grew closer together; pressing along the sides of the path and forming a thick wall that he could not see through much less attempt to physically penetrate. He was more or less stuck following the path before him and eyeing the trees with some annoyance, he continued onward.

All paths led somewhere and he just hoped this led to Kaoru.

Because if she wasn't dead already by the time he got to her he would kill her himself.

He didn't know what he was going to do with her once he found her and got his hands on her but throttling her sounded like a plan followed by yelling.

His mind made up, he continued to follow the path that stretched out before him. He now knew what he'd do when he got to her. It was just getting to her was where the difficulty lay.

And so he followed the path, let it take him where it was. The darkness did not appear to abate and if anything grew heavier around him, falling in an almost tangible sensation. Kenshin's vision narrowed to the strip of ground in front of him, clear of sticks and stones. If he strayed from the path he knew he would get lost.

Get lost and never be found and never find Kaoru.

He continued onward and time slipped by him. He had the sense of time passing and flowing around him but there was no indication that it truly had. The darkness was the same and if he hadn't been moving forward and knowing that he was moving forward he could have been in the exact same place an hour ago, three hours ago, a month ago.

And then all of a sudden it ended.

The trees that had pressed so closely around him suddenly widened and branched out forming a semi-circle around a small clearing. A small house was situated in the middle of it, the path leading up to it and stopping just before the steps that led into it.

There was a light in one window and judging by the flickering it was doing, it appeared to be a candle.

He followed the path up to the door and stopped in front of it. Walking up the steps, Kenshin paused for a moment before giving a knock at the door. It was unlocked and swung away from him.

Was Kaoru in here? He didn't know but it seemed a good a place for her to be as any and definitely better than that damned garden and filthy back alley. He pushing the door open a bit wider, he went inside.

The door opened soundlessly and he found himself entering a hallway. There were candleholders above his head, each one containing a candle. The flames flickered at the touch of wind his entrance brought with him, throwing faint shadows on the wall. They appeared to be scented candles and he caught the faintest whiff of lavender in the air.

To the left there was a spiral staircase, and Kenshin eyed it. He didn't think Kaoru was there but if he didn't find her on the bottom floor he'd look up there later. He continued down the hallway, his shadow trailing after him.

A door appeared on his left and he opened it and peered inside finding a dark shadowy room empty of even a dresser. Kaoru was not there. He closed the door and continued through the hallway and deeper into the house.

A few more steps and the hallway split into two, forking to the left and right. Kenshin kept left, the air was lighter there and not as dark. A faint wind stirred his bangs and there was a nearly inaudible humming in the air. It made the hairs on the back of his neck rise.

His feet made no sound as they whispered across the polished wood that was underfoot.

It was real wood, he thought a moment later. He couldn't remember the last time real wood had been used in anything much less a floor. The light was getting steadily brighter, subtly though, and it took him a moment to realize that it had grown lighter than it was previously as his eyes adjusted to it.

Stepping out of the hallway he found himself facing a small circular room with three doors. One on the left, one on the right, and one in front of him. They were the exact replicas of each other, plain white with brass knobs and no windows. Light shone from the crack between the door and the floor on all of them.

Which one to choose? Kenshin did not know.

He stepped toward the one in front of him tentatively, and as he did he felt a brief flare of something across his skin.

This was the right one, he knew.

Kenshin grabbed the knob firmly and pushed it open. It slipped from his hand and banged against the wall. The sound of it, breaking the silence that had fallen like a gunshot.

It was an observatory of some sort, Kenshin saw. Three walls were made of glass, looking out into a tangled and twisted garden. Moonlight broke through the clouds and turned everything into gold-edged silver mixing with the golden glow given off by the candles that ringed the room.

Kaoru was seated on a chair; her back to him, her hair was unbound from her usual ponytail and fell about her shoulders. She made no sound or movement as he entered and was still.

"Kaoru?" He asked. Her name echoed around the room.

For a moment Kaoru didn't respond, then ever so slowly she turned her head. She peered at him beneath her bangs, her eyes were her normal blue he saw instead of that blue-on-blue they had been before and he felt some tension drain from him.

"Kenshin?" She blinked at him, the expression on her face curious. "What are you doing here?"

"What is this place?"

She frowned, her brow furrowing. "I don't know," she admitted. "I've never been here before. Have you?"

"No," he replied. Something wasn't right. There was a vacant look in Kaoru's eyes that usually wasn't there.

"Oh, okay then." Kaoru shrugged. She turned around and leaned back in her seat.

"What are you doing here Kaoru?" Kenshin stepped toward the couch where she sat. She was wearing a white dress, her hands folded primly in her lap. Her hair was down around her shoulders and faintly curly. Her feet were bare and she kicked them back and forth every so often restlessly.

Something was still wrong with her.

"What are you doing here Kaoru?" Kenshin repeated the question.

She jerked as if pulled out of her thoughts. "Hmm?" She titled her head birdlike at him, "what did you say?"

"I asked what are you doing here?" Kenshin replied an edge to his voice.

She considered him for a moment and then blinked, "I don't know…Waiting?" The tone of her voice made the last word a question. "I guess… I'm waiting…"

"For what?" Kenshin asked.

"I…" A confused expression flickered across her face. "I…I… don't know… Was I waiting for you?"

"You need to come back."

"Back where?" Kaoru asked. "Why can't I stay here?"

"Here isn't where you're supposed to be," Kenshin answered. "You're running away. You need to stop running away."

"Running away?" Kaoru blinked and appeared to consider this. "I run away? Am I the only run who runs away? Running away is bad…right?"

"You need to come back," Kenshin repeated. "You've gone too far into yourself. Your body is shutting down."

"But…" Kaoru's face crumpled, her expression pained. "Here it doesn't hurt. I don't hurt when I am here."

"You can't stay here. It isn't good for you." Kenshin stepped toward her as he spoke.

"But… It hurts," Kaoru whispered and closed her eyes. "It really, really hurts."

"I know," Kenshin murmured.

"No," she shook her head. "No you do not know."

"I know that you cannot stay here," Kenshin insisted, inching closer.

"Hurts so much…." Kaoru's voice was hushed. "Let me stay here… please? Please let me stay?"

"You can't stay here," Kenshin told her. "You just can't."

"But why not?" Kaoru asked.

"It isn't good for you," Kenshin said.

She blinked slowly at him, "why isn't it?"

"Because…" Kenshin said softly. "You'll die."

"So…?" Kaoru asked and her eyes suddenly seemed clearer than before. "I'm clean… I got off Wunder… It's okay that I die?"

"No it isn't," Kenshin insisted. "What about your family?"

"My family's dead," Kaoru murmured. "Leiko…Ricky…Dove… they're all gone. They're all dead."

"And you won't figure out who killed them if they're dead. They won't be avenged." Kenshin said.

"Avenge them…" Kaoru said softly.

"That's the whole reason you joined the police?" Kenshin asked. "To avenge your family's deaths?"

"Yes…" Kaoru's eyes closed. "That is why I joined the police."

"And you can't leave," Kenshin inched closer to her carefully. "You haven't avenged your family, whoever killed them in still out there. You cannot leave."

"But it really hurts," Kaoru whispered.

"And you're going to run away because it hurts?" Kenshin kept inching closer but she didn't seem to notice.

"What should I do?" Kaoru's voice was a sigh. "I'm so tired of fighting everything. I just want it all to end."

"Your dying will not end it," Kenshin told her.

"Won't it?" Kaoru questioned. '

"It won't," Kenshin said firmly.

Kaoru went tense, suddenly realizing how close he was. She didn't move away and gave a defeated little sigh. "Are you going to take me back?"

"Yes," Kenshin nodded. "I have to."

A resigned look crossed her face. "Very well then." Slowly, carefully, she extended a hand toward him.

Kenshin grasped it and tugged it gently, pulling her to her feet and up from the couch. "You are going to fight? You're not going to run away?"

"Yes," Kaoru's nod was shaky but determined.

"Then lets get you back," Kenshin took a step backward, her hand still grasped firmly in his. The world around them flickered, wavering and there was a spinning sensation. Everything fell away, melting into deep inky blackness.

000

Everything was still spinning as Kenshin opened his eyes. He blinked several time, waiting for his vision to clear and right itself. The world ceased spinning and he could see clearly once more. The flat line beep was still ringing in the air and he had the disorientating feeling that time had not passed at all.

How long had he been inside Kaoru's mind? A minute? An hour? A day? It had felt like forever.

But now it seemed as if barely a second had passed.

"Out of the way," Megumi brushed past him and he stumbled back. There was a syringe in her hand he noted a split second later. "…Her heart has stopped."

"What?" Kenshin asked.

"Her heart is not beating," Megumi snapped. "So make sure you stay out of the way." She uncapped the syringe and frowned at it before moving over to where Kaoru lay so very still upon the bed.

"What are you doing?" Kenshin questioned, eyeing the needle.

"I'm giving her a shot of adrenaline to get her heart beating again." Megumi replied tensely.

Kenshin's mouth went dry and he swallowed. "Will it work?"

"I don't know," Megumi replied without looking at him.

She didn't know…

Megumi's face was tense and there was a popping sound as the buttons fell from Kaoru's shirt. Megumi didn't bother to unbutton her shirt, just tore it open and moved to block his view. He was glad for it as her arm raised and then came down, plunging the needle into her heart. Her heart wasn't beating, her blood wasn't circulating it was the only way to get the adrenaline into her. By injecting it directly into her heart.

A moment passed and nothing happened and Megumi started to curse under her breath heavily, a departure from the usually cool and composed doctor he knew.

"Damn it you… you… raccoon girl… work!" He heard her hiss.

Another moment passed and there was still no sign of it working. Kenshin's eyes darted back and forth between Kaoru who lay too, too still upon the bed and the heart monitor she had been hooked up to. The line remained flat and unresponsive.

There was a sheen of sweat on Megumi's brow and her face was still taut, her lips white-edged and pressed together. He could hear her counting down the seconds in a nearly inaudible hiss.

One…

Two…

Three…

Time was moving slowly. Too slowly…

Adrenaline worked faster than that. Why wasn't it working?

'You promised you would live,' he snarled at her. 'You said you wouldn't die.'

Then… there was the sound of a beep and a small peak appeared on the screen. It traveled across it and then vanished. Then another appeared, another, and another. Slowly… slowly her heart started to beat again and became a steady if weak pulse.

Megumi's lips were still pressed into a thin line and she eyed the screen without commenting. Finally, she ran her hand through her hair and stepped away from the bed, pulling the sheet over Kaoru to cover her.

"Is she okay?" Kenshin asked.

"For the moment," Megumi shook her head. "I need to give her some pain killers and monitor her. It's far too early to tell… Will you run down and tell Sano to make some coffee? I need it."

Kenshin nodded and slipped out of the room.

Kaoru was still unconscious on the bed but her heart was beating steadily and her chest was rising shallowly as she breathed. She would be okay…

With a jerk he pulled himself from his thoughts and headed downstairs

She would be okay…

She promised that she would be okay…

He went downstairs to get the coffee Megumi had ordered. Sano asked him a question and he answered. He wasn't quite sure what he said but the murderous, worried expression Sano's face faded and he leapt to get the coffee for Megumi as well as one of the sandwiches Kenshin had made earlier. It felt like a much longer time ago.

Uno was fidgeting in her seat, but stilled as Takasugi placed a hand on her shoulder. She opened her mouth to say something but looked up at him and closed it without uttering a sound.

Kenshin took the coffee and sandwich from Sano and headed back upstairs before he could be asked any more questions.

Megumi's face brightened slightly when he returned with the coffee and sandwich. After a few bites of the sandwich and a sip of coffee some of the color returned to face and she looked composed once more.

"Any change?" Kenshin asked.

"No," Megumi shook her head. "She's fairly steady right now."

Kenshin nodded and Megumi took another bite of her sandwich followed by a sip of coffee.

"You can leave now Kenshin," she said after she finished with her sandwich.

"What?"

"Go lie down and get some rest, you haven't been off your feet since the whole thing started. You look like you're about to fall over and I have no desire to have to take care of you as well."

Kenshin's eyes narrowed but the expression on her face booked no argument.

"Go to bed and get some rest. I will call either you or Sano if I need anything." Megumi said firmly.

Kenshin gave a short, sharp nod and she made shooing motions with her free hand.

He didn't look at Kaoru as he turned and left the room, closing the door firmly.

He didn't remember the walk back to his room, His shoes were kicked off and he lay down on the bed for what seemed like less than a second, as soon as his head touched the pillow he was out.

And this time he dreamed…

Kenshin felt a sense of unease settle over him.

He was back in that damnable garden again. This time it was slightly different he noted. It felt brighter; the sun was shining more strongly. He craned his neck back and noted for the first time the absence of the dome that always covered the City.

"Hello Shinta."

Kenshin whirled around and came face to face with a little girl.

She tilted her head back at him and smiled sunnily at him, a dimples appearing on both cheeks. Her hair was pulled into a tight French braid, curls escaping and framing her face. She was wearing a frilly blue and white dress with white patent leather shoes and stockings. Her blue eyes sparkled and he felt something tighten in his stomach as he noticed the long scar running across her throat. Someone had tried to slit her throat once.

"Dove," he murmured.

She reached out and grasped his hand in a surprisingly firm grip. "Come sit with me."

Kenshin nodded soundlessly and let her pull him over to a white bench next to a white-rose bush and a swiftly running brook that had not been there a moment before.

Dove hummed softly under her breath and turned and gave him a gentle push in the direction of the bench, letting go of his hand. He sat down and watched as she walked over to the rose push and mindful of the thorns, broke off a single rose.

She held it out to him and he took it without thinking.

"Now," she sat down next to him settling her skirt around her neatly. "We have some things to talk about." Her words and tone were at odds with her sweetly childish voice. Her head tilted at him and her blue eyes narrowed in a surprisingly adult expression of disapproval.

"We do?" Kenshin murmured.

"Its about Kaoru," Dove blew at a loose strand of hair in effort to get it out of her face and then tucked it behind her ear firmly, when it refused to behave.

"Kaoru?" Kenshin questioned.

"You've been acting like a bastard."

Kenshin jerked, his eyes widening.

"Oh don't look at me like that," Dove admonished, she sounded suddenly unnervingly like Kaoru. "I'm not as innocent or as young as I look. This is just the image I cultivate." Her blue eyes darkened slightly. "It's easier that way."

"How…?" Kenshin asked softly.

"How am I talking to you when I'm supposed to be dead?" Dove grinned slightly, her cheek dimpling. "Echoes and shadows… the dead never die completely and leave remnants…"

"Iizuka…" Kenshin snarled softly.

"Oh you don't have to worry about him," Dove waved her hand dismissively. "He's dead and will never return. Ever. You killed him. You killed every bit of him. You will see what I mean. For example, you will find that Kaoru has no memory of what happened to her."

"She does not remember anything?" Kenshin murmured questioningly.

"Oh she knows something happened but she can't quite recall," Dove tilted her head to the side in thought. "That might work out to your advantage in the end though."

Kenshin blinked at her.

Dove huffed softly in annoyance at the expression on his face. "You promised remember? You said that you'd take care of her and wouldn't let anything happen to her."

"Yes," Kenshin said softly.

"She's been alone too long…" Dove's eyes dimmed and the smile faded from her face. "We were her family yes and we loved her… but we couldn't give her what she needed." She wound a curl around a finger and then let it go and watched it bounce. "She saved me and I was unable to save her."

She sighed and leaned against him suddenly, eyes closing. Kenshin was suddenly struck by how young she looked.

"How old are you?" He asked quietly.

"Some days too old and the others too young," Dove didn't open her eyes. "It all depends…"

"Ah," Kenshin said.

"You're really comfy," she mumbled softly. Suddenly she giggled softly and opened her eyes. "Violet… and black…" He barely caught the words.

Kenshin found himself blinking again, "excuse me?"

She opened her eyes and beamed at him, "you shall see," her giggle was utterly childlike and yet secretive at the same time.

"Tell me," Kenshin said.

"Nu-uh," Dove waved a finger in his face. "Now what's the fun being the Seer in this family if I can't keep secrets?"

Kenshin just stared at her.

"You'll like them a lot," Dove smiled and then closed her mouth refusing to say another word on the subject.

Kenshin raised an eyebrow.

"Promise," Dove's smile widened. She looked away humming cheerily.

Kenshin sighed and decided to give it up.

"Just help her Kenshin," Dove said softly. "Help her and help yourself."

"But what if I can't?"

"You will," Dove nodded. "You will find a way."

"How can you be certain of that?"

That secretive smile flashed across Dove's face once more. "You forget what it is that you talk to, Battousai." She reached over and squeezed his hand, leaning so that she could press a kiss against his cheek. "You will find a way." She murmured.

And then she was gone.


	14. Chapter 14

Becoming conscious was like attempting to get to the surface of a deep pool of water. Swimming and kicking as hard as she could and fighting the tug and pull of the strong current that wanted to pull her under and keep her down beneath the surface.

Judging by the sluggishness of her thoughts and the way they refused to cooperate and form into something that resembled coherency Kaoru had a good idea that she'd been drugged. Why had they medicated her? She had told them no medication. It would lessen the chances of her getting hooked on something else while she had attempted to wean herself from Wunder…

Withdrawal…

Had she been successful?

The seizures had stopped.

Or at least she thought they had stopped.

Her shields were still in tatters and she concentrated on plugging in the holes, hating how her thoughts slipped between her mental fingers as she struggled to patch up the rips and tears. It was a patchwork attempt there were still large gaps and holes in the fabric of her shields and they were more fragile than she could ever remember them being before. She did her best to fix them.

There. It would hold.

One attempt would not be enough, she knew. She'd have to continue fixing them over a period of time. But for now… they would be okay for now.

Her shield repairs done, Kaoru now had to open her eyes.

It was harder than she would have thought it to be and took several attempts before she was able to do so. It was dark in the room, but even still, her eyes were too sensitive and closed on reflex before she had even gotten them fully open. Finally she managed, and just lay there letting her eyes get used to the darkness and make sense of the shadows that surrounded her.

She was alone in the room. It was not her room, she knew that at once. Megumi must have put her in there when she had brought her back to recover… she vaguely remembered the details.

Recover from what?

The withdrawal?

She knew something had happened; but there was a black hole in her memories when she tried to remember what it was that had happened to her. Kaoru bit her lip. It was a coping tactic she had seen with other Psychics. Something so bad happened to them that they had blocked it out, essentially forgotten it or else risk they go mad from it.

Sometimes they remembered, once they had healed enough from whatever happened to be able to stand the memories. Other times… other times they never remembered. Never regained the memories they had blocked out…

Kaoru shoved those thoughts away and tried to refocus on what had happened to her.

Wunder… She had been attempting to wean herself of Wunder.

When…

Something had happened….

What?

"Iizuka," the name sprang to her lips.

As soon as she uttered it, Kaoru felt her stomach clench. Bile rose in her throat. She pushed herself out of the bed, half stumbling, half-staggering to the adjacent bathroom and just made it there in time to throw up into the toilet.

She stayed there on her knees, bent over the toilet, shaking. There was nothing else in her stomach to throw up but she still felt sick. Taking a deep breath, Kaoru got to her feet. Her hands shook as she turned the knobs and cupped them under the faucet, sending water splashing everywhere.

"Stop it," she hissed to herself and rinsed her mouth.

Her hands were still shaking and she balled them into fists, shoving them into the pockets of the long t-shirt she was wearing.

Wait… she hadn't been wearing this before when everything had started…

There was something on her chest under the shirt, just over where her heart was. A taped gauze pad. Kaoru touched it with inquiring fingers and pulled away at the twinge of pain it caused.

What had happened?

Kaoru didn't even know if she wanted to remember. The gaping black hole in her memory was to keep her safe. If she attempted to poke at it she wasn't sure what she'd find. She didn't know if she'd like it either. Most likely she wouldn't. It was there for a reason after all.

The face in the bathroom mirror that looked back at her made her flinch. Her hair had been put into a ponytail at some point; strands had worked themselves free and hung around her face. The bones showed prominently pushing against the skin, throwing her cheekbones in stark relief, and she didn't remember the circles around her eyes ever being so dark. Judging by the way her collarbone protruded she'd lost weight during the ordeal.

There were bruises on her shoulder and she pushed back the loose shirt to get a better look. Old bruises that were fading and healing met her eyes. Psychic's healed fast it could have been something recent that caused it. She vaguely remembered her arm being pulled out of its socket during one of her seizures. There were faint bruises around her wrists as well, she noted and if she wanted to check she was pretty sure there would be some too around her ankles.

She didn't want to check.

If she took a shower would it make her feel better? Kaoru decided against it. Given how weak and disorientated she felt she didn't want to chance accidentally falling during the shower, banging her head and ending up unconscious and drowning in the bath.

With her luck it would happen too.

Kaoru closed her eyes and turned away from the bathroom mirror and headed back into the bedroom. Her legs were shaking by the time she reached the bed and she collapsed down upon it, her heart beating fast and she was breathing hard and feeling dizzy.

She raised a trembling hand and held it in front of her eyes, sighing she lowered it back onto the bed and wound her fingers tightly around the sheets and closed her eyes. That little trip alone had sapped all of her energy.

She felt so tired…

'Sleep,' she told herself. 'I'll just sleep for a little bit.'

That thought had barely finished before she found herself asleep. It was dreamless and dark and Kaoru welcomed it.

000

Kaoru woke with the sensation that time had passed. It was easier to open her eyes this time and she felt less drugged but still so very, very tired. She didn't feel as weak as before and had the urge to get up and move. Her stomach woke up and complained that it was empty.

That pretty much settled it.

She'd get up and at least eat something, get something into her if her stomach would cooperate. Kaoru sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. A wave of dizziness passed over her as her feet touched the floor and she waited patiently for it to pass, not making a move to get up.

Taking a deep breath she waited until the dizziness subsided and then got off the bed and stepped away from it. She was still dizzy but managed to walk in a more or less straight line to the door, concentrating on walking, one step in front of the other, her gait becoming steadier with each step that she took.

The hall lights were on as she opened the door and momentarily blinded her. She blinked several times and waited for her eyes to adjust. It didn't help her with attempting to walk when she was half-blind but she managed to keep from banging off the walls in a manner that resembled a ping-pong ball.

Getting down the stairs was another matter entirely, and Kaoru kept a death grip on the banister on the way down. At the foot she paused momentarily to catch her breath. Her heart was pounding and her legs were shaking.

Were these after affects of her Wunder withdrawal? Kaoru was half-tempted to turn right back around and go to sleep under the covers for another three or fours days or however long she'd been out. It certainly felt like it'd been four days of sleeping though; with how tired she was she might as well have slept only an hour instead of four days.

Food would help, she thought optimistically. She would at least eat something; make an attempt to get something into her stomach. It would provide energy and she'd hopefully feel less tired and less prone to collapsing into a shaking heap after three steps forward.

'At least I'm alive,' she attempted to comfort herself. The thought didn't hold much cheer. She was alive and felt like she'd been run over by a truck and then backed over repeatedly until all that was left on the ground was a flattened smush of what had previously been a person.

'I'm alive and I'm hopefully now weaned off Wunder. That's a good start… At least until I have another seizure and fall the ground with blood pouring out my ears…' Kaoru shoved the thoughts away and let go of the railing and stepped away from the stairs.

'Right… Straight…Left…Left… and now I'm in the kitchen.'

And she wasn't alone.

Kenshin was seated at the table with what appeared to be a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. He looked up as she entered and the look he gave her was not a pleasant one.

"You're not supposed to be up."

"Well obviously I am," Kaoru replied.

"Megumi said you should have been unconscious for another day or two."

"Do I look like I'm unconscious?" Kaoru asked. She staggered over to the table and pulled out a chair before collapsing heavily upon it. The urge to lay her head on top of the table and sleep was overwhelming and she quashed it with difficulty.

"You should still be asleep," Kenshin's look was disapproving and Kaoru didn't have the energy to snap back at him and tell him to bug off or worse using less polite words.

"We've already established the fact I'm wide awake," Kaoru grumbled and sighed. To say she felt like shit was an understatement. Hopefully the feeling would fade, being Wunder-addiction-less and feeling like this was not pleasant. She gave it points over being addicted, but only barely so. There still wasn't the guarantee her brain would turn to mush and she'd become a brainless zombie. It was better than a rampaging Berserker any day though.

'Happy thoughts Kaoru,' she reminded herself. 'Think happy thoughts. Sunshine and puppies and cute little baby animals.'

The baby animals weren't helping… she sighed.

Kenshin was still glaring and she made an exasperated noise in her throat.

"Stop looking at me like that or else I will hurt you." There was only a weak threat in her voice.

"You shouldn't be out of bed," he replied.

"We already covered that. Next topic please," Kaoru let her eyes slide close. She was so tired…

There was a soft snarl from Kenshin and she resisted the urge to give him a mental wallop. It'd use too much energy... Energy she didn't have... Her stomach decided at the moment to complain loudly that it was still empty and she had made no move to feed and fill it.

'I think I would happily kill for a pizza…' She opened her eyes. The look on Kenshin's face still hadn't vanished and she was quickly starting to give into her urge to hit him hard. "Do we have food?" Her voice was more or less polite; she didn't have the energy to snap at him any more.

"Yes." He answered.

"Great," Kaoru scanned the kitchen and attempted to jar her sluggish brain into remembering which cabinets held the canned and ready-to-eat foods.

She blinked as Kenshin suddenly got up and went over to the cabinets and pulled out a can and a box of crackers. He placed the can on the counter and pulled out a saucepan and then carried the box of crackers over to the table and set it down silently and gave her a pointed look until she reached over and grabbed it. Opening it, she pulled a few out and munched on them while Kenshin heated whatever it was that was in the can on the stove.

It turned out to be chicken broth and he set a bowl down in front of her and held the spoon out to her. There was a command in his actions that had Kaoru's hackles rising and she glowered at him, taking the spoon from him, still munching on her crackers.

"Saltines and chicken broth?" She muttered as she crushed the crackers and let them fall into the broth before stirring them around and waiting for them to become soft so it was easier for her to eat.

"I'd rather not have you throwing up everything." Kenshin answered as he sat down across from her and picked up his cup of coffee. "And that is all you're getting right now. Your stomach won't handle a lot of food for some time now."

"Yes, I expected you'd rather not be inconvenienced like that. How wonderful for you," Kaoru grumbled and took a sip of her cracker-broth concoction. It wasn't the best tasting thing she'd ever had but at least it was food. After a few bites her stomach started to feel nauseous and she pushed the bowl away.

Kenshin said nothing and just picked up the bowl and took it away.

Now with something in her stomach, Kaoru felt more coherent and less shaky. Not much better but definitely not worse either. She gave it points over how she had felt before anyway.

She blinked as Kenshin suddenly set a mug down in front of her. It steamed and smelled of mint.

She raised an eyebrow. "What is this?" She was half-tempted to ask if it contained any kind of sleeping pills.

"Peppermint tea."

She blinked at him.

"It'll help settle your stomach."

Kaoru wrapped her hands around the mug, feeling the heat seep into her hands and raised it experimentally to her mouth. It was sweet and she tasted honey followed by a strong aftertaste of mint as she swallowed the hot liquid.

Kenshin was still watching her and she twitched.

"I can feed myself Kenshin," she set the mug down and kept her hands wrapped around it, savoring the warmth.

He snorted and she gritted her teeth together. "Don't you have somewhere else to be? Or did you pull the short straw and get stuck here watching to make sure I'm okay?"

Kenshin said nothing only glared and she growled and set the mug back down on the table before pushing away from it, her chair making screeching sounds as it scraped against the floor. "I'm going back to bed." She was too tired to deal with this and her bed was beckoning to her.

She was still too shaky on her feet to stalk away from the table and instead had to make do with a shuffling hobble that kept her balance but was the farthest thing from dignified. She was acutely aware of Kenshin's gaze on her, an itch between her shoulder blades and resisted the urge to flip him off or give him a migraine.

"Bastard," she hissed.

Kaoru reached the stairs without suffering a dizzy spell and was gripping the banister going up so tightly her knuckles were white. A step before she got to the top she had to pause to ride out a dizzy spell. As she reached the top of the stairs another hit her so hard that she lost her breath and reeled.

Her foot slipped out from under her, her grip on the banister weakening and failing. She found herself falling backwards. It was a testament to how tired and drained she was that even the most basic powers of agility and balance that Psychics had were gone and she yelped as she started to fall backwards.

An arm circled around her waist and held her, keeping her from falling and holding her steady.

Kaoru blinked and looked up to see a tense jawline in her vision. Kenshin's eyes were narrowed and the arm wrapped around her waist tightened.

"Idiot. You just got weaned off Wunder, are already so eager to injure your head more than it already is?"

"Let go of me." Kaoru growled.

An eyebrow arched. "Not as you are right now. Do you truly wish to fall?" He said nothing more and his arm didn't leave her waist until she had regained her balance. Before she could move away, his hand grabbed her elbow. "Let's get you back into your room. I don't believe there's anything in there that you can get hurt with."

Kaoru swatted at him and he didn't let go of her. She made an exasperated noise in her throat as she found herself dragged down the hallway in the direction of the room she had woken up in.

"Kenshin I swear if you don't let go of me right now….!"

"You'll do what?" Kenshin asked. "You're as weak as a kitten right now I don't even believe you could hurt a fly with your powers as drained as they are."

Kaoru swung at him without thinking. He caught her fist easily and then released it and continued to walk, his hand still holding her elbow tightly as he dragged her down the hallway.

"Let. Go. Of. Me." Kaoru ground out and attempted to dig her heels in but it proved a laughable attempt, as her feet could get no traction on the slick wood of the hallway floor.

"Learn to accept help when it is given." Kenshin said as he released her and she stumbled back from him.

"Why do you care?" Kaoru asked

He was Battousai.

Kenshin's eyes narrowed. "That is not a question you should be asking. Rather, think where you would be now if you hadn't been given the help you needed."

Kaoru's eyes widened and her mouth thinned but she didn't say anything. They both knew where she'd be if she hadn't been helped through her withdrawal. She would be dead.

"What do you expect me to say?" Kaoru asked.

A frustrated look crossed Kenshin's face. "Saying 'thank you' would be a good start."

"Thank you," Kaoru murmured softly.

"You're welcome," Kenshin replied.

Kaoru went still and for a moment all she could do was blink at him, her mouth opened slightly and then she shut it and seemed to give herself a little shake. "I…I can walk." She brushed past him before he could say anything. They had stopped right in front of her door and she opened it and then closed it firmly behind her. She heard Kenshin turn and walk away.

She leaned against the door for a moment and simply concentrated on breathing. In and out in a steady manner. Her head was killing her and the edges of her vision were starting to blur. She made it the three steps to the bed before collapsing upon it and letting her eyes close.

Tremors worked their way up her arms and she balled her hands into fists as they started to shake. She bit her lip as they spread over her body, her limbs twitching and spasming. The entire episode lasted two minutes at most before they tapered off and ended.

She waited a moment more to be sure they had ended before opening her eyes. Running her hand through her sweat-soaked bangs, Kaoru sighed. She wasn't completely cured it seemed. Or else there were lingering after affects of the Wunder withdrawal that went beyond simple tiredness and feeling dizzy.

Damn it.

Kaoru pulled the covers over her and closed her eyes. Sleep. She'd figure out what to do later. She was alive, and that was all that mattered. She was alive and more or less whole. The addiction to Wunder seemed to be gone; she could deal with the side effects. At least long enough to find who had killed her family and kill them.

And then… if she couldn't deal with them… Couldn't live with them…

Battousai could have another Psychic to add to his kill count.

Tiredness dragged her under and she slept with that last thought still running circles in her head.

000

How long she slept, Kaoru did not know; a faint brush of thoughts against her tattered shields had her starting into wakefulness

"Megumi…" She murmured, recognizing who it was and sitting up in the bed just as Megumi opened the door and peered inside.

"Are you awake?" Megumi asked, pushing in the door a bit more before stepping inside.

"More or less," Kaoru answered. "I feel dead on my feet."

"That's to be expected," Megumi said. "It wasn't easy for you."

"I… don't remember much," Kaoru admitted.

"That might be for the best," Megumi replied.

Kaoru blinked, "what does that mean? What happened?"

"What do you remember?" Megumi asked.

Kaoru frowned, "I remember starting my withdrawal…seizures… you were there…Kenshin… Sano too…?" She shook her head. "Something happened, I know something happened. I just don't know what."

"And you really want to know what happened?" Megumi grabbed a chair and dragged it over in front of the bed and sat down, an intent look on her face. "You've apparently blocked the memories and now you want to know what it is that you've forgotten?"

"Would it be best for me to not remember?" Kaoru asked.

"I can't decide that for you." Megumi answered.

"What would you do if you were in my situation?" Kaoru asked.

The look that crossed Megumi's face was one she couldn't name. For a split second she saw something beneath the business-like doctor Megumi portrayed herself as. A mixture of emotions that looked so familiar she should have been able to name them. But for some reason she couldn't.

A lump formed in Kaoru's throat.

"I was in your situation…once…" Megumi murmured. "Or one very much like it."

"You were?" Kaoru said softly.

"Yes," Megumi nodded. "My family was killed… My parents were doctors who ran a clinic helping drug addicts become clean… Kanryuu didn't like it."

"Kanryuu," Kaoru murmured.

"He kept me alive," Megumi's voice was flat. "I was too… old to hold his… interest. Instead I was doctor to his girls."

Kaoru shuddered at Megumi's words.

Like Dove…

Those girls had been like Dove…

"How long?" She wanted to know.

"A few months," Megumi sighed. "Then Hiko got me out and I was passed around from team to team until I ended here."

"I'm sorry," Kaoru said.

Megumi shook her head, "he's dead I killed him."

"You… killed him?"

"Rescuing you. In a way I almost think I should be thanking you. You allowed me to avenge my family." A bitter smile touched Megumi's lips. "You were kidnapped during your withdrawal and we brought you back."

Rescue… Kidnapped…

Kaoru could feel the black spot in her memories starting to lighten. The memories pushed at her consciousness. They were indistinct… foggy… The feelings that Megumi's words provoked were not good ones and despite herself, Kaoru shuddered and shoved the memories away.

"Who?"

Who had kidnapped her? And why?

"Iizuka."

"He's dead." The words sprang to her lips.

He was dead… she knew that with a surety that startled her. He was dead…

"…Did I kill him?" She asked softly.

"No," Megumi shook her head.

"Then… Who killed him?" Kaoru wanted to know.

"Kenshin killed him."

For a moment all Kaoru could do was stare at her. "Kenshin… Kenshin killed him?"

"Yes," Megumi nodded.

"Why…?" She murmured.

"That you will have to ask Kenshin," Megumi replied.

Kaoru took a deep breath and then let it out slowly and tried to digest the information that had just been given to her. She had been kidnapped. Iizuka had kidnapped her? They had rescued her and Iizuka had been killed by Kenshin.

But why had Kenshin killed him? He had been a teammate…

"Iizuka worked for Kanryuu," Kaoru said softly.

"Something we found out too late," Megumi murmured.

"Is that why Kenshin killed him?"

"Among other things perhaps… It is not my tale to tell. You will have to ask him yourself." Megumi wouldn't say another word on the matter.

"What aren't you telling me?" Kaoru wanted to know.

"I'm telling you only what I think that you can handle right now." Megumi answered. "The fact that you can't remember what happened…" She shook her head. "Trauma does things to people… Forgetting what happened is best." The look in her eyes was sad. She wasn't just talking about her, Kaoru realized. She was talking about herself as well.

"Do you want to forget what happened to you?" Kaoru asked.

"No," Megumi's response came quickly.

"Why?" Kaoru asked.

"Because… If I remember what happened, I can make sure it never happens to anyone else." Megumi replied. "That is part of the reason I joined the police."

"I see," Kaoru said. And she did.

"Do you really?" Megumi asked.

"Yes," Kaoru replied truthfully.

Megumi smiled slightly, "and so you do. We both joined the police for the same reasons you know – to avenge our families."

"And now that you have done that?"

"Now that I have done that, I will do my best to make sure no one else ever goes through what I went through." Megumi answered. "I'm keeping the promise that I made to myself."

An image floated through Kaoru's mind. It was Megumi, slightly younger than she was now, standing next to Hiko. Her clothes were dirty and torn and her face had a smudge of dirt across her cheek. In one hand she held a small knapsack. The look in her eyes was steely and resolved and with Hiko at her side she walked up the steps to the police compound.

The door opened and she went inside. As she did, Kaoru watched as she changed, shifting and blurring to resemble the Megumi that now sat before her. No longer the girl who had escaped Kanryuu's clutches she was older, more centered, but that same look in her eye.

She had escaped Kanryuu and she had dealt him the fate she had promised she would on the night her parents were murdered.

Kaoru pulled back out of Megumi's mind and ducked her head apologetically. "I'm sorry," she murmured softly.

Megumi shook her head, "telepaths." There was exasperation in her voice.

"You don't hate Psychics." Kaoru said softly.

"No, I don't hate Psychics," Megumi agreed. "I hated Kanryuu and he used Psychics. He abused them… So no, I do not hate Psychics."

"Thank you." Kaoru murmured.

"Please," Megumi sniffed. She was back to being business-like again… once more the analytical doctor. "Is there anything else you would like to know raccoon girl?"

"Raccoon girl?" Kaoru blinked.

"Take a look in a mirror," Megumi advised. "With those circles under your eyes, you do indeed resemble a raccoon."

"You know, I don't think I've ever seen a raccoon." Kaoru mused.

"What about weasels?" Megumi asked. At Kaoru's confused look she laughed and it had a wicked cackle to it that made her blink. "You haven't met Misao yet." The look on her face was amused. "I must make sure to introduce you to her sometime. That will indeed be fun."

"Is she anything like you?" Kaoru asked warily.

"Oh no," Megumi replied sweetly. "She's worse."

Kaoru gulped.

"Now raccoon girl," Megumi got to her feet ignoring Kaoru's twitch. "If there is nothing else you wish to talk to me about I will be going."

"Um…" Kaoru murmured. "There's nothing…"

"Kenshin told me that you ate earlier today." Megumi said.

Kaoru nodded "Crackers and chicken broth."

"Are you hungry?" Megumi asked.

Kaoru shook her head, "no."

"If you get hungry eat. I'd advise things that are easy on your stomach. Crackers and chicken broth, toast… Nothing heavy, remember that. You're still recovering and will be for some while from your Wunder withdrawal."

"Noted," Kaoru sighed.

"Good," Megumi nodded briskly. "Now get to sleep."

"Doctor's orders?" Kaoru asked. "I've already slept a lot today."

"As your doctor I am telling you to sleep. It will help you heal more than anything I can give you."

Kaoru bit her lip. Her sleep was dark and dreamless. Whatever demons she had blocked couldn't find her when she was asleep… Perhaps sleep was indeed the best thing for her.

"A request if I may?" Kaoru asked.

"Yes?" Megumi arched an eyebrow.

"No medicine," Kaoru said firmly.

"No medicine," Megumi agreed readily enough. "Unless I feel that you do need it. Is that acceptable?"

"Yes," Kaoru murmured.

"Good," Megumi nodded again. "Now sleep raccoon girl."

Kaoru twitched, "I need to give you a bad nickname."

Megumi laughed at that. "Have fun coming up with one. Sano already has a list compiled."

"Why does that not surprise me?" Kaoru asked.

"Because it shouldn't," Megumi replied. "Now sleep."

Kaoru gave a salute. "Yes doctor."

Megumi snorted and dragged the chair back to where it had previously been. "Sleep well and if you need anything just call me."

"I will." Kaoru promised and tried not to fidget.

"Make sure that you do," Megumi said and with that, left the room, turning off the lights as she did so and closing the door firmly behind her.

Kaoru closed her eyes and snuggled back under her covers. Her body ached faintly and she sighed softly. Sleep came to her quickly and as before she did not dream.

Faintly, she wondered when she would dream again. For now, it seemed that she had stopped doing so. All that was there in her dreams was darkness when she looked. Darkness that hid the memories that Megumi had only hinted at and that she wasn't sure she wanted to remember.

Perhaps it was best that she forget.

'She never answered my question…' Kaoru thought. 'She never told me what she would do if she was in my place…'

What would she do? Would she be content to forget? Or would she decide that she must remember everything that happened and always carry them with her?

Some memories were best forgotten. Secrets left dead and buried and never unearthed or told to anyone.

But still…

If given the choice… would she choose to continue being left in darkness? Or, would she want to know what happened to her? Every little detail?

'I better be careful what I wish for,' Kaoru thought. 'Be careful that the past does not come back to haunt me.'


	15. Chapter 15

Kaoru judged the time to have passed to be three or four more days. It had all blurred together and telling time was difficult in the semi-darkness of the room. There wasn't a clock and the light was kept dimmed. She slept more than anything, dark half-remembered dreams plaguing her with feelings she couldn't name or perhaps didn't want to.

She often woke to the sound of the door closing to find placed at her bedside a bowl or soup or simple sandwich. Still easy and light meals…Small meals... Kaoru often felt nauseous afterward but had yet to throw up what she had struggled to eat.

It was the realization that she couldn't remember the last time she'd showered that drove her out of her bed. She just hoped she'd regained enough strength to take a shower and contemplated dragging the chair in with her in the shower, just in case she'd collapse while showering – she really had no desire to end up accidentally drowning – but nixed it and headed into the bathroom to shower leaving the chair where it was.

The water took several moments to heat up and she hopped right in, sucking in a breath at the temperature. Wanting it to be a bit cooler, Kaoru reached over and turned the knob that little movement making her slip slightly on the wet floor and bang her shoulder against the wall. The pain that raced up her arm turned the edges of her vision white and made her head spin.

Damn. If she did end up dying in the shower then she really did deserve to die after all. It was an idiot's death.

She waited until her head stopped spinning with pain and made her showering a quick affair; her movements were short and jerky as she shampooed and conditioned her hair, scrubbing at her skin until it was bright pink from both the heat and the roughness of the soap she'd used. She had a death grip on it to prevent it from slipping between her wet fingers and probably scrubbed harder than she needed to, desperate to feel clean.

Getting out of the shower proved another difficulty and she almost fell as she was reaching for the towel. Her knees were weak and she was shaking by the time she made it out of the bathroom and into the bedroom and she collapsed down on the bed, breathing hard.

Was this going to be the rest of her life? Kaoru wondered as she waited for her heart to stop galloping in her chest. Would the rest of her days be like this, staggering from the bathroom, all but bedridden most days and unable to walk from the hallway and back without feeling breathless afterward?

Megumi had said to give herself time to recover. But Kaoru had yet to see any recovery start. Her power was still weakened and refusing to respond to her wishes. Her shields were still as fragile as glass and she was indeed as weak as a kitten, just as Kenshin had told her she was.

It was aggravating more than anything else. If she had the energy or the inclination to do so Kaoru would have ranted and screamed, thrown a tantrum out of sheer frustration. Broke things. Hurled things. Raged at her weakness…

Leiko had always done that when things had never gone her way – which was often.

Perhaps the reason she did not do as Leiko had done was because she was a telepath and not a telekinetic as Leiko had been. Or else it was because she had been too long at the receiving end of such furies that Kaoru would rather not inflict them on someone else.

Either way she found herself brooding more than raging.

After a moment she sighed and got to her feet. With fresh clean clothes on and her hair in a ponytail, Kaoru felt better, a little closer to human. Her hands were shaking by the end of it but she still persisted and only allowed herself a minute or so to sit on the bed and rest before getting once more to her feet and heading toward the door.

It was early enough that the day would be wasted spending the rest of it hiding in her room and in bed. And it would be a step closer to her recovery, Kaoru decided, if she was out and about and not curled up in the darkness.

She had yet to have another seizure and Kaoru was grateful for that. It was one less problem that she had to handle.

Judging by the thoughts brushing against her ever-so-fragile shields, Kaoru judged it to be lunchtime. She made it through the hallway and down the stairs without incident, though by the time she reached the dining room her legs had to started to shake and she was feeling light-headed.

She found the entire time seated at the table with what looked like salad and soup and rolls. As if the sight of food was some kind of signal her stomach grumbled.

The sound must have been louder than she thought because everyone's head turned in her direction.

Kaoru bit her lip and fought the urge to turn around and head back upstairs. Her legs were shaking so much that she knew she'd more than likely end up collapsing halfway back to her bedroom. Leaning against the doorframe, she was glad her voice didn't match the shakiness her legs were exhibiting. "Is it lunchtime?"

Megumi nodded and the way she was looking at Kaoru made her feel like she could see right through her. Wordlessly she pulled the chair next to her away from the table and gestured toward it.

There was as tense kind of silence in the air as Kaoru made her way to the chair and sat down more-or-less gracefully upon it.

Uno flashed her a quick smile before turning her attention back to her salad, Takasugi seemed absorbed in eating his soup and Megumi had returned to eating as if nothing had ever happened. Kaoru didn't look in Kenshin's direction.

She found an empty bowl left out on the table and spoon beside it. Kaoru pulled the saucepan of soup toward her, her hand shook as she ladled some soup into the bowl and she gritted her teeth but didn't end up spilling any of it.

There was a touch against her elbow and she looked down to see a roll of bread placed next to her.

Kenshin was still concentrating on his soup, ignoring her.

Kaoru tore the roll into little pieces and put the bits of bread into the soup, stirring it and waiting for them to soften. Everyone was still silent and if there had been any chatter before she had arrived, her appearance had killed it.

She sighed and took a bite of her soup. Chicken noodle she realized and quite good. She was hungrier than she had thought she was and ate until she started to feel very full, the bowl completely empty by the time she was done.

Kaoru blinked as a hand appeared, picking up the bowl and blinked again as Kenshin went around the table clearing it.

"I can help," she said.

"Stay seated."

Kaoru ground her teeth together but didn't move.

"Thanks for lunch," Uno said suddenly, rising to her feet. "Takasugi and I are going to go head upstairs and spar for a while. If we're not down in time for dinner just leave some out for us." Takasugi hadn't said a word and she sighed in exasperation before grabbing his arm and dragging him bodily out of the room.

"Going to see Sano," Megumi announced and headed in the direction of the door.

Kaoru blinked after them. Why was everyone acting so strange?

"Tea or coffee?"

Kaoru jerked. "Um… yes please… Tea would be nice…"

Kenshin nodded and she watched as he went over to the counter and filled the kettle to boil.

Kaoru found she was gripping the tablecloth tightly without realizing it and unwound her fingers from it and her hands into her lap. Her knuckles were white and she shook out her hands and settled back into the chair, trying her best to ignore the fizzing that had suddenly started in her stomach.

Closing her eyes she listened to the sounds of Kenshin moving around the kitchen. As always his shields were up. They reminded her of stone she realized suddenly. Smooth with no traction. You couldn't attempt to scale over them nor could you knock them down.

With her powers as weak as they were now she knew she didn't have the power to break through them even if she wanted to. In contrast to his shields hers were like glass. One well-aimed thought could shatter and break them and she'd be exposed and vulnerable.

She jumped as he suddenly set her mug of tea down in front of her, hands going automatically to wrap around it and raise it to her lips.

They were both still silent and Kaoru was fighting the urge to fidget. She didn't feel as tired nor as drained as before and getting out of the bedroom had been good for her, she decided. She remained where she was though. Kaoru was fairly certain that had she attempted to get up and head back, any strength she had regained would flee her and she'd collapse.

Damn it. She was getting so sick of being so weak.

Weak…

She'd been kidnapped. She had been too weak to even keep from being kidnapped…

Kidnapped by Iizuka.

Iizuka…

Kenshin had killed Iizuka.

"Kenshin?" It took her a moment to realize she'd actually spoken out loud. "Tell me… why did you kill Iizuka?" She turned her head in his direction and asked the question once more. "Why… Why did you kill Iizuka?"

Kenshin was silent. As she watched he ducked his head bangs falling over his eyes. A muscle jumped in his jaw. He didn't reply.

She opened her mouth to ask the question a third time when she heard the front door open and then close. What brushed against her shields reminded her of a maze… a dark forest. A labyrinth with more twist and turns than you could ever hope to find your way through and get to the other side.

Hiko.

What was Hiko doing here?

They both turned at his appearance.

"Good, I see that you're both here. Saves me having to hunt you down and find where you are." Kaoru felt something skip down her spine, the sensation as cold as ice when he turned his head in her direction and she found him looking at her, his expression unreadable.

"Kaoru you are coming with me."

Kaoru opened her mouth to ask why but shut it without speaking. Setting her mug down on the table she got to her feet, her movements slow but without shaking. Glancing over at Kenshin she found he hadn't looked up, and she sighed, raising her head and pushing her shoulders back and walked to where Hiko was, concentrating the entire while on placing one foot in front of the other. She may as well find out what he wanted.

Hiko nodded and turned and Kaoru took it as an unspoken order for her to follow him.

Her knees were feeling weak by the time she made it to the end of the hallway and she held onto the railing as she walked down the steps after him. Hiko didn't offer any assistance. His car, she saw, was parked in the driveway and he had the door left open for her. She slid in and closed the door before closing her eyes and trying to catch her breath.

Hiko said nothing to her as he backed out of the driveway and drove. Nor did he speak to her as he drove in and out of the traffic that clogged the streets of the city. Kaoru often wondered at how there was so many cars considering the average person was too poor to afford one much less the price of gas it cost to run them.

She was silent as he drove and concentrated on staring out the window. She didn't know what was going on or why he wanted her but she didn't have the energy to ask questions or pry information from him and settled down to wait for him to tell her.

After driving for several minutes he parked in front of a row of stores and little cafes. Still not speaking to her, he got out and she followed a moment later, moving as fast she could. Hiko ducked into the little café in front of where he had parked the car and she gritted her teeth and followed.

"Go sit down," he told her as she entered. "Do you want anything?"

"Coffee," Kaoru replied. She really wasn't in the mood for it, but Hiko was paying for it so she might as well. She found an empty table and sat down. The café was sparsely populated. It was brightly lit and cheery though. Colorful paintings hung on the walls and classical music played softly. She gave it points over the ones she usually frequented. A mouse wouldn't dare show its face here.

She snapped back to attention as Hiko returned and sat down across from her. The table they were at suddenly seemed very small. She took the coffee from him and tapped her finger against its rim, feeling nervous. It was a feeling she hated, but it was almost impossible not to feel nervous when faced with this man.

He probably knew it too.

Scratch that, he did know.

She took a sip of her coffee and waited for him to speak.

"Megumi tells me you don't remember much of what happened to you." Hiko said.

"Yes," Kaoru replied. She stifled the urge to say 'yes sir,' and instead took another sip of her coffee.

"Iizuka was working for Kanryuu. He kidnapped you probably thinking to make you some kind of present for Kanryuu. They have both been dealt with. Iizuka is dead as is Kanryuu."

"Kenshin killed Iizuka," Kaoru said wondering if this was the official reason he had stated he had done so. If there was more to it, Hiko didn't say. Megumi had hinted that there was.

"Yes."

"I went through the withdrawal for Wunder," Kaoru said.

"It appears to be successful," Hiko replied.

"That's because I'm not dead yet," Kaoru answered.

"Do you think you should be?" Hiko asked.

"I… I don't know…" Kaoru told him. "No one has survived Wunder withdrawal."

"And very few people if any have tried to go through it. And all that have attempted it have done so on the streets with no medical attention given to them." Hiko answered.

Kaoru nodded silently.

"According to Megumi's report your heart stopped during the process," Hiko said.

Kaoru bit her lip. "I know…" Waking up with that bandage over her heart... There was now a scar forming there… pink and newly healing. As if in response to her thoughts it twinged and she tightened her grip on the mug of coffee.

"What we do now is up to you," Hiko told her.

Kaoru jerked in surprise, her eyes flying to his face. "What do you mean?" She asked carefully.

"Given your track record, you now have a few options open to you."

"What do you mean by options?" There was wariness in her voice.

"You have two of them." Hiko replied. "You can either stay with your current team or be reassigned."

"Reassigned?" Kaoru echoed softly.

"Placed with a different team," Hiko said to clarify.

Kaoru just stared at him. She knew what reassigning meant. But… "…What would that mean for me?" She asked.

"That is up to you," Hiko told her. "You obviously cannot return to the streets. A bounty has been placed on your head and it's growing with every passing day."

"I know I can't return to the streets," Kaoru murmured. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to after everything that had happened.

"So what we do now is up to you," Hiko said. "You can stay with your current team or be reassigned."

"I… I don't know…" Kaoru admitted. She tapped her finger against her mug as she thought. One… two… three… Four… "I don't know." She said again.

"Well you better decide," Hiko said.

"Any new information on who killed my family?" Kaoru asked, changing the subject suddenly.

"None at the present moment," Hiko answered.

Kaoru sighed and let go of the mug, closing her eyes she leaned back against the chair. An ache was forming at her temples and she resisted the urge to rub them. "Nothing has gone to plan with your use for me has it?"

"No."

At least he was being honest. Kaoru didn't put it past him to lie to her.

"I figured as much," Kaoru said. "I'm supposed to be the police's good little pet Psychic. Do what I'm told. Be a useful tool. Instead I get kidnapped, injured, an operative ends up dead because of me, and who knows what else. There's a nice little black hole in my memories that isn't giving me any information…"

"We took down Kanryuu's drug operation. A rat was found and eliminated."

"Goody," the word dripped sarcasm. "It seems I've been a good little puppet after all."

"What do you want?" Hiko asked and she opened her eyes. "A pat on the head?"

"No," Kaoru sighed. "I just don't like being used as a tool."

"What did you expect would happen to you when you joined?" Hiko snorted softly.

"I didn't know what to expect and you weren't giving me any choice in the matter. Either I join you or I die. I've joined you and I may die anyway."

"You're not a fool Kaoru. You know that everyone eventually dies."

"That's why I went through withdrawal," Kaoru said. "I didn't want to die yet."

"You almost did. You took that chance."

"I'm not a Berserker." Kaoru answered. "And I haven't found out who killed my family yet." That had to mean something.

An eyebrow rose. "Is that why you did it?"

"Yes." Kaoru responded. "I haven't found out who killed my family and the prospect of going to Kenshin and asking him to put me down like a rabid dog didn't sound appealing."

Hiko snorted softly.

Kaoru sighed and let her eyes close again. "Is there anything else you want of me?"

"You still haven't answered my question," Hiko reminded her.

"I'll stay." Kaoru replied. "I'll stay with the current team… For now at least..."

"Is that what you want?" Hiko asked.

"I doesn't' matter what I want," Kaoru answered. "What I want I can't seem to have. I want to know who killed my family. I want them dead."

"Once there is information it will be given to you." Hiko replied.

"Is that a promise?" Kaoru asked.

"That is the best I can give you." Hiko answered her

"Fair enough," Kaoru nodded.

"That's satisfactory?"

"If it's the best that you can promise me, then yes it is satisfactory." Kaoru answered.

"Very well then," Hiko got to his feet and waited for her to scramble to hers. "We will return now."

"Is that all?" Kaoru asked.

"Megumi will keep me informed of your progress." Hiko replied.

"She'll let you know if I'm dead or not," Kaoru said.

Hiko didn't say anything, just turned in the direction of the door and had Kaoru scrambling after him. She gritted her teeth and felt winded by the time she had reached the car. Hiko was seated and this time the door wasn't open. She opened it herself and sat down on the seat, hating how weak and shaky she felt.

"Make sure you see Megumi later." Hiko told her.

Kaoru nodded.

He didn't say another word on the drive back to the compound.

Kaoru got out of the car and walked into the house without his help, though she was acutely aware of his presence at her back, just behind her. She wondered if she fell to the ground if he would do anything… probably not. Just stand back and wait for her to get back on her feet and never once offer assistance.

Kenshin appeared form wherever he had been at their arrival and she brushed past him.

Hiko probably wanted to talk to him and her presence wouldn't be wanted in that discussion. So Kaoru walked back to her room by herself, leaving Kenshin and Hiko to talk. It was blissfully dark and she moved through it relying more on memory of where everything was than actual sight. God knows she'd spent more than enough time in there to be able to move around with her eyes closed and still not bump into anything.

She wondered briefly if she would ever move out of the hospital room – what she had taken to calling it – and back into her own previous room. That shudder that rippled through her at the thought had her freezing mid-step.

The idea was repulsive for some reason and it seemed to be emanating from the black hole in her memories. Cautiously Kaoru poked it and the emotions it gave off hit her like a slap and she found herself staggering.

Phantom pain raced through her centering on her arm which spasmed painfully, making her breath catch in her throat. Pain… so much pain… and an undercurrent there of terror and fear that made her mouth go dry.

Carefully, Kaoru pulled away from it and shuddered again as the final vestiges of it rolled away and off her.

No… She wouldn't be going back to her old room…

If just the merest thought of it gave off such a spike of fear she'd hate to know what would happen to her had she even attempted to step foot into it.

Kaoru let out the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding and felt some tension drain from her, quickly replaced by a tiredness so bone-deep, she suddenly found it hard to keep her eyes open and was yawning without realizing it.

Sleep then.

More sleep… Kaoru shook her head at the thought. All those years living on little sleep and starting during the night at the softest sounds of mice or footfalls in the alleys were catching up to her. Sleep and heal had more or less been Megumi's orders for the moment.

Her body it seemed was giving her no chance to disobey them and Kaoru fumbled for the bed, her body feeling like a great lead weight. She lowered herself onto it and sighed at the touch of cloth at her face.

One moment… She would just close her eyes and she'd roll over and under the covers in just a moment…

Almost before the thought had finished being formed in her head she was asleep.

And this time unlike all the other nights before, she found herself dreaming.

000

Kaoru's first impression was of darkness.

Ever so slowly it began to fade, not becoming less dark, but rather the outlines of the things around her becoming more distinct and visible. She supposed her eyes were becoming more accustomed to the darkness around her.

She was in a park. Or what Kaoru took to be a park.

She was seated on a swing, an empty twin of the one she sat on beside her and still. Ever so often she found herself giving a little kick and the swing underneath her swung back and forth gently. The ground under her feet was pebbled, small stones, she bent down and grabbed a handful and let them trickle back to the ground between her fingers. They fell slowly and hit the ground soundlessly and Kaoru found herself frowning at that.

Off to the side there was a slide. A seesaw occupied a corner. A sandbox took up a corner opposite to it. Kaoru could make out the shapes of small shovels and buckets and a small digger or two. The entire side to her left was lined with benches, whatever color they would be in the daytime was gone and they were the odd grey-white of darkness, their colors bleached.

The park was surrounded by trees, skeletal trees like one would see in the middle of winter. Their bare fingers reached upward to poke an equally dark sky void of the moon or any stars. A breeze blew and it was silent. Even as it passed through the branches of the trees they made no sound.

Despite herself, Kaoru shivered.

She didn't like this place. No, she didn't like this place at all.

Weren't parks supposed to have children and warm watchful mothers? To be bright and shiny places where people could come to relax and play without worry or care?

This park was deserted and Kaoru got the feeling it had been a long, long time since children had come to play here.

The wind blew again, harder this time and it cut through her. Kaoru yelped and shoved her hands into the pockets of the black coat she found she was wearing. On her hands were black knitted finger-less gloves and a black scarf peeked out from under the coat, soft against her neck, the color was muted in the darkness, but even so she got the brief impression that it was red.

Her jeans were dirty and the boots on her feet scuffed and showing signs of heavy wear. Experimentally Kaoru wiggled her toes and found her feet to be warm enough inside of the boots.

Still, all the same, she wondered at her appearance and what it could mean.

Didn't dreams always do something for a reason?

She shook her head and felt her hair bob in response to the motion. It had been pulled up in her usual ponytail and for a moment she had a feeling of disorientation. Her hair had been down before…

Before…

Before what…?

Kaoru poked that thought and found it refused to respond. With a sigh she gave up and kicked her legs back and forth, the swing moving underneath her as she did so.

The sky looked odd with the absence of the dome that usually covered it. Kaoru missed the stars and moon. It was a rare night when she could see them through the dome that curved over the city and as a child she and the other children in the orphanage had peered through the window at the night sky hoping for a glimpse.

The nuns without fail would catch them out of bed and send them swiftly back, closing the curtains as they did so.

Kaoru pushed away at that memory.

The orphanage had not been the happiest time in her life, the months on the streets after she had left it even less so. She thought the first few weeks after she had met Ricky and Leiko and had finally managed to wrestle some control over her powers… No, they were more bittersweet than anything else, she decided, not exactly happy, but not exactly unhappy either.

Had she ever been really happy? Perhaps looking back on it all with the knowledge of what had happened to everyone she knew was clouding her memories and making them at once happier and unhappier than she remembered.

Kaoru shook her head to rid it of thoughts and concentrated on swinging to block them out.

Back and forth, the swing went and Kaoru closed her eyes at the breeze it created, feeling her bangs blow back and off her face.

Higher and higher…

A laugh tickled at the back of her throat and Kaoru grinned.

Almost… almost… she felt like a child again.

Almost…

Closing her eyes Kaoru ceased swinging and settled back, feeling the swing underneath her slow and then come to a gradual stop.

Dove would have loved this…

Had there been a park around where they had lived Kaoru would have taken her and happily.

But no, parks were not for the poor. They were for the rich. For mothers who did not have to work and who could take their children to play. For people who did not spend their lives scrounging and stealing for food or money.

"I really need to stop thinking like that," Kaoru muttered. Her voice had an odd hollow ring to it but at least it was audible. "Every time I think the glass if half-full I then realize it's half-empty too. Dove would smack me if she was here and tell me to cheer up. So cheer up Kaoru."

Cheer up…

Kaoru put a smile on her face. It felt too forced and she sighed, shaking her head.

If she kept sitting here she'd get depressed and grumpy.

Opening her eyes, Kaoru eyed the trees.

A walk would do her good; she decided and got up off the swings. Her legs felt strong and there was no trace of weakness or wobble in her knees. At least her mind-self seemed to be fully recuperated from her withdrawal even if her physical-self was barely managing twelve steps before breaking into a sweat.

The pebbles shifted under her feet as she walked but as before there was no sound. The entire place seemed to be in a bubble of silence and Kaoru stepped lightly and quickly, uneasiness rolling in the pit of her stomach.

There was still no sound as her feet left the park and touched grass. Kaoru was half-tempted to shout but resisted the urge. No doubt it'd be swallowed up and soundless as everything else was. She couldn't even hear herself breathe.

Between two trees she saw a patch of flattened ground; clear of any grass. It was as good a path as any and Kaoru took it, following as it snaked between a few more trees and she suddenly found herself in the middle of a forest.

A glance back over her shoulder showed more trees than she remembered seeing before. They path behind her she had taken seemed to have disappeared and the trees blocked any chance of getting back to the park.

It seemed the only way to go was forward.

"Okay," she murmured out loud. The fact that she could actually hear herself speaking gave her some confidence. "Let's see where this goes hmm?"

So she walked.

How much time passed Kaoru couldn't tell. The only thing that told her she was actually getting somewhere was that the fact the trees slid past her as she walked. Everything looked the same as before and if it wasn't for the feeling of motion Kaoru would have sworn she had gotten nowhere and was in fact, still in the same place.

Even as it was, Kaoru wasn't sure it she wasn't just walking in some big huge circle.

Dream worlds didn't make sense; she knew that. They didn't have to make sense. They were different from the regular mindscapes. At least the mindscapes held some kind of order and she supposed had rules to follow. On the other hand dreams were a free-for-all. Nothing happened without having a reason, but attempting to figure out what the reason was often resulted in a headache and no conclusion or answer to be found.

So Kaoru walked.

And walked.

And walked some more.

"Okay," she blew her bangs out of her eyes. "At least I don't feel tired. Am I supposed to feel tired?" Talking out loud and to herself was a bit odd but she quickly found she was getting used to it. Wasn't one of the marks of being a crazy person was that they talked to themselves? If she wasn't locked up in a padded room and wearing a straightjacket by the end of it, Kaoru would count herself lucky at least in that sense… On one hand it would mean that she hadn't died yet.

That was always a good thing.

Yes, if she were alive at the end of all of this, Kaoru would count that as a very good thing.

"I have no idea where you're leading me to – or not to – but I'm getting sick of walking." She announced, to herself or to the dream world she didn't know. "So I'm stopping now thank you very much." With that said Kaoru plopped down on the ground.

The ground was actually comfy, she noted distantly. The ground she had been walking on was worn flat and smooth and didn't have any stones. If it came to it, she could sleep easily on the ground. Kaoru sighed and rubbed at her temples.

The sound of a twig breaking was like a gunshot and Kaoru jumped.

She didn't remember getting to feet. At the back of her mind she noted she must have whirled around without realizing it, because she had been facing the other direction. There was a flicker of movement from between two trees and her eyes narrowed, trying to pierce through the darkness.

Was the darkness… moving?

No, she corrected herself. It wasn't moving… there was just something very big and black moving in it…

It was a tiger she realized as it stepped out of the shadows and into the less-dark darkness that was around her.

It was a tiger…

Or a tiger in reverse…

Where the orange would be in its place was black. Slashes of red as thin as tiger-stripes cut through its coat. Its eyes were a bronze-gold in the darkness, the pupils slitted. Its paws were as big as her head and she eyed the rather nasty looking claws and swallowed slowly.

It paused mid-stride and stared at her soundlessly.

Kaoru stared back and tried to ignore the way her heart was hammering in her chest.

"Hi kitty," she murmured. Her throat felt suddenly dry and she attempted to swallow again.

It seemed to grow bigger the nearer it came. Kaoru wondered if it was some odd trick of the light. It was huge, its head level with her chest and she fought the steadily rising urge to turn around and flee.

It would run her down, she knew. She was under no impressions that she could outrun it even if she attempted to do so.

"Aren't you a pretty boy?" Kaoru murmured, eyes still locked with it. She had seen eyes like that before… If only she could remember where. Eyes like that weren't exactly common and Kaoru was puzzled as to why she knew she had seen such eyes. She had never even seen a tiger before except in picture books. The city had no zoo and animals such as tigers had long ago been regarded as extinct and as real as fairytale unicorns.

The tiger continued to pad toward her, while she remained frozen in place. Like Kaoru it seemed to make no sound as it moved. She thought that the initial sound it had made that had alerted her to its presence had in fact been deliberate. It could move soundlessly as naturally as breathing.

Even now every movement it made was pure grace, a kind of deadly grace that Kaoru couldn't look away from. Its eyes never left Kaoru's and she didn't realize how close it was until it paused a hairs breath away from her, its heat touching her.

She let out a breath and blinked slowly.

It was still watching her calmly. In one graceful movement it sat down and its head was level with hers. Its breath washed across her face and Kaoru half-expected it to smell of rotten meat and dead things. Instead it smelled… not sweet… but… not what she had expected either.

She reached out to touch it, only half-aware of what she was doing and the softness of its fur surprised her. It was longer than she had initially thought spilling through her fingers those odd red stripes through the inky blackness.

Kaoru wrapped her arms around it and curled up against it, tucking her head beneath it. She could hear its heartbeat, so strong that it echoed through her. It started to purr then in response to her touch. Its purr was a low hum that thrummed through her and into her blood and she closed her eyes. It was warm… a comforting kind of warmth that made her think of safety and hearth-fires on a cold rainy night, a warm that was a protection against the cold and bleak world outside.

"Thank you," Kaoru murmured, opening her eyes. "Thank you for making me feel safe."

Its golden eyes gleamed and she reached up to rub one of its ears. It tolerated her petting for a moment before pulling away, ducking its head so that it was against her chest and she could feel the tickle of its whiskers across her check.

"Thank you," Kaoru said again.

It blinked once at her. Then as she watched, a soft golden glow started to edge it. Slowly… ever so slowly it began to dissolve into a warm golden light. The light surrounded her for a moment, oh so warm. Then it seemed to condense and as she watched it started to seep into her, entering her chest, right where her heart was.

The warmth spread through her and Kaoru raised her hand, blinking to see that she had begun to glow in response to the light that was filling her. Then as suddenly as it had all started it disappeared.

The only thing left behind was the warmth and for a moment Kaoru's ears filled with the sound of two hearts beating in synch.

Then that too faded away.

The dream around her was starting to dissolve and Kaoru closed her eyes feeling it slipping away. One moment… then two… that was all it lasted.

Her dream ended.

000

The look on Hiko's face as they both turned to watch Kaoru's progress up the stairs didn't bode well for the conversation he knew they'd be having.

"Would you like to sit?" Kenshin asked.

"It would be a good idea for you," Hiko retorted, moving past him.

"I imagine so," he said softly and following Hiko down the hallway and into the kitchen.

Kaoru had disappeared upstairs.

Hiko sat down on the other side of the table and motioned him to sit down. It wasn't a request it was a command and Kenshin obeyed half out of habit.

"What did you and Kaoru have to talk about?"

"She remembers nothing." Hiko said.

Kenshin nodded, "yes. We've realized that."

"I've read Megumi's report," Hiko replied.

Kenshin just nodded. He'd expected him to.

"So what do you plan on doing now?" Hiko asked. "You haven't done anything but screw up since she arrived on the Squad."

Kenshin swallowed and closed his eyes, suppressing the urge to grind his teeth. "What do you suggest?" He knew better than to even as much as give an opinion. Hiko would call it idiotic and rip it to shreds. Hold his tongue and keep his mouth shut and he'd be less likely to be called a fool. He'd learned a few things over the years with his dealing with Hiko.

"I'd suggest that she go to another team," Hiko said shortly. "You have proved yourself time and time again incapable of taking care of her, utilizing her properly. As a Psychic fighting Psychics and working for the police she is perhaps the best tool that we could have. And because of your stupidity she was nearly lost."

Kenshin remained silent. There was nothing he could really say to that. It was true after all.

"Nothing to say?" Hiko snorted.

"What would you have me say?" Kenshin asked softly.

"There's nothing you can say." Hiko said. "I've already decided."

Kenshin bit his tongue. "And?"

"Another team would be better for her," Hiko told him. "One that would utilize her properly. Saitou perhaps or Aoshi, even Sano."

"So you're sending her to another team?" Kenshin asked.

"Did I say that?" Hiko replied sharply.

"You said another team would be better for her than mine."

"I did say that." Hiko acknowledged.

Kenshin could feel a headache coming on. "So what have you decided?"

"I've decided she'll stay in your team for the time-being." Hiko told him.

Kenshin stared at him. "But you said…"

"I know what I said." Hiko retorted.

"Then… why are you letting her stay on the team?" Kenshin asked.

"She asked me to let her stay." Hiko snorted. "And Megumi is one of the best doctors we have. But what I said before is still in effect. One more screw up on your part or if she suffers some kind of relapse and she'll be on another team and you'll get so much grunt work that you'll be policing bars and clubs full of drunks for the next seven years."

With that said Hiko didn't wait for Kenshin's reply and got to his feet. "Remember what I said," he tossed over his shoulder in parting. I will not tolerate another mistake. You won't get another chance"

Kenshin watched him go without speaking. The tension in his shoulders eased and he let his eyes close and leaned against the chair.

You won't get another chance…

And he knew Hiko meant it this time.

He wouldn't get another chance.

000

Kenshin climbed the stairs, Hiko's words still ringing in his ears. He tugged at the end of his ponytail in frustration. Talking with Hiko always left him feeling like he wanted to break something afterward, or like a five year old being scolded by an adult.

Kenshin found his teeth grinding in response to that particular thought.

At the top of the stairs he paused. Kaoru's door was open. That by itself was odd. He had never once known her to leave her door open. Half the time it was not only closed but also locked. And even while Megumi had been tending to her and everyone had been taking shifts to check on her, they had always kept the door closed. He wouldn't blame her if he found the door not only closed and locked but also barricaded after what had happened.

He went over to it and pushed it open. It didn't make a sound as it opened.

Kaoru lay on the bed so still that it was only after a moment that he registered the fact she was breathing. She must have pushed herself too hard today. She hadn't even removed her shoes or gone under the covers before she had fallen asleep.

"Idiot," he muttered and pushed the door back a bit more to let himself in.

Kaoru didn't even stir when the light fell across her face and he stepped away from the door, pushing it back a bit more so that it wasn't shining in her face.

"Idiot," he said again as he tugged off her shoes and laid them down neatly next to the bed.

Pulling the covers up from the bottom of the bed to cover her, he frowned. He had seen Megumi's medical chart she was underweight and if anything had only lost more weight since the whole ordeal had started. Chicken broth and crackers certainly did not help either.

He'd talk to Megumi tomorrow about seeing if there were other things that Kaoru could handle eating that would help her gain the weight she needed.

"I promised." He said softly. For some reason it was easier to say when he knew she was dead asleep. "I promised and I'm keeping it. I promised you that."

Kenshin didn't think he could have broken it now even if tried to. Much less wanted to and that thought had him blinking.

No… he would keep his promise to her. Keep it because promises were meant to be kept.

And perhaps…

Because of something else…

Something he didn't quite know if he could name yet.

"You're such trouble," he informed her as he stepped away from her bed.

Kaoru remained asleep and Kenshin turned around and walked out of the room without looking at her again.

Promises…


	16. Chapter 16

The day was dark

The next few days Kaoru did little other then sleep and eat. A couple times she attempted to venture downstairs to eat meals with the rest of the squad. The venturing downstairs took four times longer than it had when she was healthy, leaning against the wall for balance and support and maneuvering her way down the single set of stairs without tumbling head over heels… tottering into the kitchen and sitting down with some semblance of dignity…

The little effort it took left her shaking and light headed. Through sheer stubbornness she would have persisted in doing so but all her strength was used up keeping what was left of her shields intact and foreign thoughts out.

Megumi watched her like a hawk the entire time and after one particularly disastrous attempt at coming downstairs unaided declared that she would be staying in her room until she was better. No ifs, ands, or buts.

So she stayed in her room and choked down what food Kenshin or Megumi brought her. Soups and small sandwiches, stuff that was easy to eat and light on the stomach. Kaoru considered herself lucky that they hadn't started putting food in a blender and feeding her mush like the invalid she felt like. They did however cut her food into tiny little pieces that made her feel like she was a child just learning to feed herself. Her room was kept dark and it was quiet. At first Kaoru found it comforting, soothing almost.

It soon started to feel stifling and oppressive.

The days passed and she stayed in her room. With each passing day Kaoru found herself growing more and more restless. She wanted out of the room. But at the same time she didn't want an audience to watch her fall on her face or tumble down staircases. Or worse have Megumi catch her…

So she waited until there was no one around. Waiting for no one to be around was not an easy thing. There was always someone in the compound; Kaoru could hear the echo of their thoughts against her shields at every hour of the day.

And then finally about three days later, Kaoru found herself alone in the compound at last. Megumi was off to one of the clinics in the city to help with surgery on another officer from a different team who had been injured in a gunfight, Sano vanished under the pretense of seeing some old friends.

Everyone knew what happened when Sano went to see old friends – he'd end up in some smoky gambling den and loose a month's pay. Takasugi went with him presumably to keep him out of trouble. Uno went wherever Takasugi went. Kenshin had left before all of them to buy groceries. Had he still been there when everyone else was leaving Kaoru doubted he would have left. But now she was alone in the compound... all by herself.

When it came to Kenshin, Kaoru didn't know what to think. Her head and arm still ached at intervals, cutting through her thoughts and it kept her from thinking too long on any subject. So when it came to Kenshin, Kaoru decided not to think about him. He was something she would puzzle over another day.

When she felt better.

When she wasn't hopped up on so many drugs.

She got out of bed. That was no big deal; her vision swam a bit and her knees shook as she got to her feet but otherwise it was bearable. It only took a moment before her vision cleared. See, no big deal. Opening the door and walking down the hallway was fairly easy as well. The stairs were another matter however and Kaoru spent a good length of time maneuvering herself carefully down them, a white-knuckled grip on the banister as she did so.

It occurred to Kaoru then that she had never really explored the compound before. She had never really had any need to do so in the past. The compound to her had consisted entirely of her room, the dojo on the floor above her, and the kitchen.

Also, Megumi's office where she had been patched up…

Kaoru shut that thought out of her mind.

She passed the kitchen and followed the hall that led out of it. She had been through that hall of course, in and out and through it going on various missions but she hadn't really paid attention to anything else, the doors and the hallway that branched off of it.

Kaoru followed that hallway pausing for a few moments to catch her breath.

It led to another hallway this one slightly smaller. Narrower and the ceiling was lower. After a few feet Kaoru came to the end of the passage with two French doors in front of her. They opened soundlessly and she peered inside.

It appeared she had found the media room of the compound. A large TV dominated the room flanked with shelves that were packed with vid-disks. Judging by the pictures they all looked like action movies and she strongly suspected that the majority of them were Sano's under the pretense of them belonging to Takasugi. She didn't want to know how much they had cost. Vid-disks went for big money on the black market and they were a luxury most people in the City couldn't afford. It appeared Sano was blowing his money on things other than his various gambling activities…

No wonder he was stashing them here, his team would kill him if they knew just how much money he was spending.

In front of the TV was a sagging green couch, the color faded in some places. It looked worn and comfortable and unexpectedly a lump formed in Kaoru's throat. She gave a quick shake of the head to dispel the memories that suddenly rose to the surface.

She was getting sentimental.

With a sigh Kaoru flopped onto the couch, it was very old and worn, the fabric molding to the shape of her body. The remote control lay on the arm nearest to her head and she reached over with her good arm to grab it.

The TV flickered on to what seemed to be the middle of a newscast. The cover story was about a gunfight involving police and Psychics. Kaoru presumed it was the same one that Megumi had been called in to help with doctoring. As usual they painted a black picture of Psychics.

Kaoru repressed a sigh and fought the urge to change the channel. She felt out of touch enough with the world, it would be good to find out what was going on outside of the walls of the compound. She presumed it would be the same things as always: pain, people suffering, Psychics dying at the hands of the police. The city was a dark one and darker still for Psychics.

"And now for a change of topic."

The scene flickered to one that almost seemed too familiar. Kaoru's breath caught in her throat. A reporter in a neat white suit stood in front of a building that made Kaoru's gut tighten.

"As you know there are many orphans in the city," The reporter was saying. It looked wrong for her to be smiling brightly, to be so cheery. But that was television, Kaoru assumed. The entire city could be burning and yet there would be smiling, cheerful faced reporters telling blithely of the events going on.

"Yet for these orphans, many without relatives or family friends to rely on, who often find themselves on the street prey for Psychics and drug dealers and other unsavory people, there is hope."

As the camera panned away from the reporter and to the orphanage behind her Kaoru let out a breath. No it wasn't the same. It wasn't the same orphanage. But the familiarity set her teeth on edge. She wondered if all the orphanages in the city looked the same. It wouldn't have surprised her.

The segment went on for a few more minutes and then changed to something else. Kaoru was no longer paying attention by that point. Her eyelids felt heavy and a wave of tiredness crashed over her. She was drained, her shields were flickering and she let them drop to the barest minimum.

There was no one around anyway…

The couch was comfortable and Kaoru's eyes slipped close. She'd only sleep for a little bit, just long enough to get some energy back and stumble back upstairs and collapse onto her bed in her room…

Kaoru barely finished the thought before she was asleep.

000

Kenshin let the door close behind him. The compound was silent and he frowned. Too quiet, almost as if no one was even there… Had everyone left? He set the grocery bags down and headed up the stairs to Kaoru's room without even realizing it.

She wasn't in her room.

For a brief second the thought that something had happened to her, another seizure or worse crossed his mind. He shook his head. No, Megumi would have called had such a thing happened.

Everyone else had apparently left the compound and Kaoru had decided to leave her room. When she had been told explicitly not to.

Now just to find out where she was. It wasn't the kitchen; Kenshin had passed that on his up the stairs. She had apparently not even been in the kitchen anyway if the lack of fire damage was any indication. So she was somewhere else in the compound.

Kenshin's eyes drifted upward. The dojo? He dismissed the thought; Kaoru wasn't foolish enough to attempt anything too physical with the state she was in. Kenshin decided to backtrack. He headed out of Kaoru's room and back downstairs.

Had she gone into some other area of the compound?

Kenshin headed down the branching hallway and kept straight ignoring the doors on either side. It seemed logical to assume that Kaoru would continue going in a straight line if she was indeed moving about the compound. He just hoped Kaoru was being logical – wandering around the compound with no one else around (getting out of bed no less when she had been told to stay in it) counted as an extremely illogical thing to do in his book.

Finally he came to the end of the hallway. The French doors were slightly ajar. Pushing them open he stepped inside the room.

Found her.

Kaoru was curled up on the couch in front of the TV fast asleep. The TV was on showing a news segment. Kenshin paid it no attention.

"Idiot," he muttered fighting the urge to shake her awake and ask what she had been thinking to go wandering around the compound by herself.

"Kaoru," he reached out and prodded her good shoulder, intent on asking her what she was doing, why she had left her room.

Or at least that had been the intent.

As his hand touched her shoulder the world around him dissolved.

000

The street was dark. Kenshin glanced upward. The sky above the dome of the city was covered in thick grey colored clouds. The clouds alone weren't responsible for the darkness. This part of the city had a grimy dirty feel to it. The lights on some of the lampposts were smashed and what light there was threw odd shadows across the street.

He turned and came face to face with an old brick building. The sign was lopsided and so old and weathered he could barely make out the name of the place. St. Dymphna's Orphanage For Girls.

Orphanage…

So this was where Kaoru had grown up… His jaw tightened as he took in the orphanage again. The feeling this place gave off… it was no place for a child to grow up… It didn't feel right...

Where was Kaoru? He wondered. This was her dream.

A dream of her past…

No sooner had he thought the question than he had his answer. The door of the orphanage was thrown open and two black robed nuns appeared. There was the sound of muffled cursing and they seemed to be struggling with something… with someone…

They held a young girl between themselves. She was pulling against them and fighting for all she was worth to get away as they descended the steps. She yelped as they suddenly jerked her off her feet, her legs scraping against the concrete steps as they dragged her bodily down the stairs.

Their faces were set into hard lines and in a smooth almost practiced motion they threw her away from them. She landed in a heap at Kenshin's feet, but didn't appear to notice him at all.

"Why?" She asked softly, her voice was tear-choked but there were no tears in her eyes or on her face. "Why?" She asked again her voice somewhat steadier.

Kenshin went still as he saw her face. Recognized who she was.

Kaoru…

This was Kaoru…

A very young Kaoru…

Her hair was tangled and pulled into a messy braid. The clothes she wore hung off her thin frame several sizes to large. Hand-me-downs or donations to the orphanage he assumed. Use and years of washing had turned them an odd grey color though he thought that at one point the shirt might have been green or blue. The pants were shapeless and drawstring, tied tightly around her middle. The shoes on her feet looked worn and barely serviceable.

Her eyes looked too big for her thin face. An orphanage was supposed to feed its inhabitants. Three meals a day. The prospect of food was often one of the reasons children were given to the orphanage in the first place by their parents., left on the doorstep with the hope that they would at least have food. Food and a roof over their heads. Kenshin wondered if Kaoru had ever been fed decently in her entire life.

"Why?" She asked again. "Please tell me why?"

"Why?" The taller of the two nun's voice was hard. It matched her face, there were lines around her eyes and at the corner of her mouth that hinted at age rather than laughter though her face was still relatively young looking and she could have been any age between thirty five and fifty.

"Why?" The smaller of the two echoed. She was stocky and the dark habit she wore did nothing to hide and if anything accentuated the fact. "You know why."

Kaoru's already huge eyes widened and she flinched as if slapped. "Your thoughts…" Her voice was whisper-soft. "I… I hear them." She raised a hand to her temple and flinched again. Her hand fell away and her head bowed, eyes sliding shut. "I… can't… not hear them…"

The taller nun's lip curled. "And so you know why you must leave."

"We cannot have an atrocity like you here." The shorter nun said. "Psychic." She splat the word.

Psychic…

"I haven't done anything!" Kaoru cried, her head rising to look at them. Kenshin saw her start. They weren't looking at her. They were looking above her. They refused to make eye contact. They refused to acknowledge her. She already did not exist to them.

"I haven't done anything," Kaoru repeated, softer this time. "I have done nothing to you. Absolutely nothing…" her voice died away with the last word.

They didn't respond. Together they turned, the hems of their skirts swishing with the motion. Together, they ascended the stairs. The door closed behind them. It closed softly with barely a sound.

Still Kaoru did not cry. She lay where she had landed in the street with her head bowed and eyes closed once more. Kenshin saw her hands fist tightly, her knuckles turning white with the tension. Then slowly she uncurled her hands.

"Psychic…" She murmured. "Psychic…" She spat the word from her mouth. Her fists came down hard on the street once, twice, and then a third time. She opened her eyes and lifted her hands. The skin had split across her knuckles and was bleeding. She inspected her hands silently in an almost detached manner. She raised her eyes to the orphanage and forcibly shook her head.

"Not home…" She murmured. The orphanage was no longer her home.

She rose to her feet wincing slightly. When they had thrown her she had landed hard and she knew there would be bruises later. She had best go before they came out to check that she had indeed left. She didn't not want to know what would happen if the nuns found her still there.

"Goodbye," Kaoru said. "I… don't think I will miss you."

Her head raised and back ramrod straight, she turned away from the orphanage and started walking down the street. She made it a few strides before she broke into a dead run and disappeared down the street.

Kenshin watched her go before turning back to look at the orphanage. At the back of his mind he wondered if it was still in operation. But that would be tended to later; the dream was already shifting around him and fading away.

When the world came back into focus he found himself in the center of a street. It was the middle of the night and seemed darker still. A few lampposts lined the street. Most like the ones near the orphanage had their lights smashed and the few that did have lights gave it off in weak flickering attempts that did little to illuminate the street.

Where was Kaoru? Kenshin turned around in a full circle and found that the street was deserted. There was no one around and no Kaoru.

He waited a moment and then felt a slight tug in the direction down the street. The dream was directing him and he followed the tug to see where it led.

The lights grew steadily brighter the further he walked but that feeling of 'not rightness' lingered.

If anything it intensified.

Silhouetted under the faint light of one of the lampposts was a woman, the scant amount of clothes she wore and the suggestive posture marked her instantly as a prostitute. Kenshin felt a brief moment of relief when he realized it wasn't Kaoru. At the same time he wondered what she was doing here.

He passed the prostitute who like everyone else in the dream did not appear to notice him. Kenshin fought the urge to run. Where was Kaoru? This was her dream… her memory after all…

At last he found her.

Some time seemed to have passed since she had been forced from the orphanage. The clothes she was wearing were different but they still didn't fit. If anything she looked thinner and her hair was pulled into a messy bun that hinted that it hadn't been brushed properly for days.

She was seated on the step of what looked to be a restaurant. In her hands she held half a sandwich and was eating with the deliberate slowness that told him she was starving and was just barely restraining herself from devouring it down in a few quick bites. She took a few more tiny bites of the sandwich then hunger seemed to overwhelm her and she finished it off with two larger quick bites.

Kenshin could hear her stomach grumble from where he stood.

"I know!" Kaoru snapped and poked her stomach. "I know… I know… starving… hungry…" The lilt to her voice made the hairs on the back of Kenshin's neck raise. It was eerily familiar to the time when…

Kaoru shook her head and got to her feet. "Maybe if I keep looking I can find more food," she talked out loud to herself and nodded in agreement. "Sounds like a plan." An almost too cheery smile flitted across her face and she turned and headed down the alleyway.

Kenshin followed.

The alley was nearly pitch-black and it was difficult to see. Another sense of unease rolled over Kenshin. He stepped carefully after Kaoru who seemed oblivious to it all. She was walking with an almost skipping step to her stride.

As they came out of the alley she froze and went still. Almost too still. He followed the line of her sight and stiffened.

The man in front of them screamed predator and bad things. The light from the lamppost behind him cast his face in shadow. He seemed to regard them silently for a moment and then slowly and deliberately advanced toward Kaoru.

Kaoru stood there frozen as he approached. She raised her hand and pressed her fingers against her temple and flinched, automatically taking a step back.

"What are you doing here girly?"

Kaoru shuddered. "Noth-nothing…" She said softly. She seemed unable to move and watched him come closer with wide-eyes. "Stop…"

"Stop what?" The man finally did come to a stop a few feet in front of Kaoru. Close enough to grab her…

"Stop… thinking…" Kaoru shuddered. "Stoppit!"

Kenshin could almost sense the man putting two and two together.

"Psychic…" His voice was gleeful.

Kaoru shuddered again, she looked sick.

The man reached out and grabbed her. At his touch Kaoru screamed as if he had burned her. If she had been thinking of fleeing or running away all of that was gone now. She looked like she was just doing her best not to get sick and throw up.

"Psychic… Psychic… Psychic…" The man crooned as he dragged her from the alley and into the thin ring of light cast by the lamppost. Kenshin reached to grab Kaoru and watched as she passed through his hands as corporeal as a ghost.

There was nothing he could do here.

All he could do was stand and watch.

This was a memory. This had already happened. He could do nothing to prevent it.

"Stoppitstoppitstoppit!" Kaoru cried.

"Baby Psychic," the man murmured as he got his first look at Kaoru. "You're still just a kid." He dragged her over to where the lamppost was and pressed her up against it, he grabbed her hands and twisted them behind her effectively pinning her.

Kaoru's only response was a whimper.

She was young, she had no shields. She had nothing to protect herself with and no notion of how to. Kenshin could only imagine what kind of thoughts the man was having. Kaoru shuddered convulsively her face drained of color in the light cast by the lamps overhead.

"You'll fetch a nice price," the man murmured. "A Psychic… one as young as you…" He smiled as Kaoru shrieked softly, the sound catching in her throat. "Mind-reader are you? All the better…"

"Stop…" Kaoru begged.

"You'll fetch a good price. More if you're untouched… but that doesn't mean I can't have some fun with you." He fumbled for his zipper with one hand and his eyes closed.

Kaoru stiffened; her eyes were wide and unseeing. Her voice had fallen silent except for nearly inaudible whimpers. "Sto-stop… Stop… Stop… Please… NO!" The last word tore itself from her throat and seemed to hang in the air.

The man convulsed suddenly and dropped to the ground. There was blood pouring from his nose and ears. His eyes were open and sightless; in the light cast by the lamps overhead they looked as drained as color as he was drained of life.

He was dead.

Kaoru stared at the dead man at her feet.

She jerked suddenly and stepped back. Her back hit the lamppost and she froze unable to decide where to run. Carefully she stepped around the body, loathe to touch it. Then she turned and ran as fast as her feet would take her.

Kenshin followed after her.

Kaoru ran and ran. She didn't seem to care where she was going. As long as she was far away. As long as she couldn't be touched. She ran.

At last she collapsed onto her hands and knees. Kaoru threw up. Her body shook and she sobbed. She threw up until there was nothing left. Finally done, Kaoru struggled to her feet. She managed to stagger a few feet and then collapsed pulling herself into a tight ball, crying.

The dream faded out to the sound of her sobbing, the scene already breaking up and shifting around him.

000

It was dark. Why was it always dark? Did Kaoru's memories have no light in them at all?

Kenshin's eyes took a moment to adjust; when they finally did he made out a small huddled shape.

Kaoru…

He was striding toward her before he even realized it

Kaoru was curled tightly into a ball, her arms wrapped around her legs and knees drawn up under her chin as she lay on her side on the ground. Not too far from her was a small pill bottle.

Wunder…

Where had she gotten Wunder? How had she gotten Wunder?

The first thought set his teeth on edge. A needy Psychic kid such as Kaoru mixing with an unethical Wunder dealer…

Kaoru whimpered and the sound cut through him.

Her eyes were closed tightly; her limbs were spasming ever so slightly. Kenshin stepped toward her and reached out to touch her. As before his head passed through her as if she was nothing more than a ghost. But he saw how she had gotten her Wunder.

From a girl named Keelie.

Keelie was in her mid-teens if that. In Kaoru's mind she was pretty. It was a child's mind and a child's view of things, but Kenshin agreed with her. Keelie had long curly brown hair that framed a fine boned face with high cheekbones and soft brown eyes lined too thickly with mascara in what was a supposed to be a sultry look. She was small and slender.

She was also a prostitute.

And a Psychic.

The first Psychic Kaoru had met since being thrown out of the orphanage.

Keelie lived in a small apartment. If you could even call it that. It was one room total with a closet sized bathroom that barely fit the tub and toilet inside of it. A stove that looked as if it never got used was off to the side pushed into a corner. A bed took up the entirety of one wall covered in patchwork blankets dominated the room.

"You can stay for the night." She was saying.

Kenshin started. She was talking to him. Or rather to Kaoru as he was it through her eyes.

"Why are you doing this?" Kaoru asked.

"I dunno," Keelie shrugged. "I know what it's like I guess. To live on the streets." Her nose wrinkled. "It's not fun."

"No," Kaoru agreed softly. She jumped as one of the blankets suddenly levitated off of the bed and came down to rest upon her shoulders.

"You…"

"I can move things just as you can hear thoughts." Keelie told her, a smile flitting across her face. "Get some sleep. Hope you don't mind sleeping on the floor, I kinda need the bed. It's better than the street anyway."

"Yeah," Kaoru gulped and shuddered slightly.

Keelie ruffled her hair slightly. It was still slightly wet from her bath. The first thing Keelie had done when they had arrived at her apartment was toss her into the bath and not let her out until she was sufficiently clean. The clothes she wore were her own and still dirty but at least 'she' was clean.

"Go to sleep okay?"

Kaoru nodded and curled up on the floor pulling the blanket around her. Her eyes slid shut and she was instantly asleep.

Pain woke her.

Her head felt like it was splitting a part. Images rushed through her mind, some too quick to see properly. Others she saw all too clearly. She saw as Keelie did. All the men, every single one of them. Keelie remembered them all.

Kaoru saw and saw and saw…

As if from far away she realized she was screaming. She felt disconnected from her body.

Pain flared across her cheek once and then once again. The slaps helped her come back to herself slightly. It gave her something to concentrate on even as her power flared and whipped around, pulling the thoughts and memories from Keelie's mind and flooding Kaoru's mind with them.

She could hear Keelie cursing, her name figured in most of it.

"Dammit!" Keelie swore and slapped Kaoru again. "Dammit!" She cursed again.

The faces were blurring together in Kaoru's mind. They turned into dark shadows and melded into an even darker memory, one that was recent and all her own. Her throat felt raw from screaming.

She felt something being slipped into her mouth, pushed between her teeth, Keelie was careful not to get bitten. Kaoru swallowed instinctively.

It was as if a switch had been flipped. The images faded from her mind like ghosts. The voices stilled. Dull warmth was suffusing her, her limbs were becoming heavy. The pain in her head was lessening and slowly vanished all together.

"What…?" She croaked.

"Wunder," was Keelie's grim reply. "Sleep now. It's the best thing for you."

Kaoru didn't have a choice. She slept; Wunder acted as a barrier and kept the thoughts out of her head.

Keelie woke her when she got up the next day. She forced Kaoru take yet another bath, pressed a sandwich into her hand and then made her leave with the farewell words of "For fuck's sake girl. Stay away from the whores! And never become one yourself. You wouldn't be able to handle it." She tugged affectionately on the end of Kaoru's braid. A braid she had done for her.

And image flashed across Kaoru's mind. A little round faced girl with eyes the color of Kaoru's own and ginger colored hair. With it came the knowledge: sister. Keelie's sister. Who would have been around Kaoru's age had she not died years earlier…

Kaoru gave her a hug and left.

She never saw Keelie again.

The world blurred around the edges before it dissolved once again.

000

When the world wavered into focus once more Kenshin found himself standing in another one of the dark streets of the City. The lamplights overhead were for the first time whole and bits and pieces of shattered class did not cover the ground around them for once. Still the light the lamps gave off was faint and flickering and did little to illuminate the street.

Kenshin's eyes adjusted and once again he felt that slight tug, the pull that would lead him to where Kaoru was. He followed it. It felt colder, the bite of winter was in air. Winter… From what he had seen of Kaoru winter would not be kind to her. His stride hurried and he picked up his pace, the tug only growing stronger.

He rounded the corner and paused, tensing at the scene before him.

Kaoru stood with her back to the wall. She was shaking slightly, her hands were trembling and balled into fists in an attempt to stop them and keep them still. Kenshin recognized the signs of an early seizure and gritted his teeth.

Kaoru was as child. And she was Wunderless. She had no control over her gift and no way of keeping out the thoughts that constantly barraged her...

Two children, a boy and a girl, who couldn't be much older than she was, were advancing on her steadily. He tensed at the threat he saw in their body language.

Street kids.

"You're Psychic," he heard the girl say.

"Yeah," Kaoru's voice was hard and he saw her eyes dart quickly around; she was ready to fight or flee if she needed to. "What are you going to do about it?"

"New Psychic," the boy murmured softly, he was taller by a head than the girl.

Kaoru's eyes widened suddenly. "Your thoughts… I can't… hear them…" Her face whitened as she processed this realization. After weeks of being unable to keep the thoughts from the people around her out of her head, they were gone. For once her mind was silent, free of the flood of voices and images that had haunted her since before she had been kicked out of the orphanage.

"Shields," the girl snorted. "Don't tell me you don't know how to shield?"

"Shield?" Kaoru blinked in confusion.

"You're a Psychic and you don't know how to shield?"

"No," Kaoru shook her head. "What is shielding?"

"Shielding is…" The boy shook his head. "Keeping thoughts that you don't want in out and keeping things that you don't want out in."

"You can do that?" Kaoru's voice was soft in amazement.

"Yes," the girl snorted and rolled her eyes.

"Not everyone can shield Leiko," the boy, Ricky, said quietly. "Not everyone has the need to learn."

"Teach me!" Kaoru cried. "Please!"

"Why?" the girl asked, her hand settled on her hip with the air of arrogance. "Why should we teach you?"

"Leiko…" the boy murmured.

"Shut up Ricky," she replied.

Ricky's mouth tightened and he ducked his head, but he didn't utter another word.

"So tell me," Leiko turned back to Kaoru. "Why should we teach you?"

"Because…" Kaoru started to say and then suddenly staggered, her knees buckling and almost sending her to ground. Another tremor overtook her and she lost her balance, catching herself if barely and yelping as her hands hit the ground.

"Seizure…" Leiko murmured, she watched Kaoru with only mild curiosity in her eyes.

"What is… happening…?" Kaoru's teeth were chattering and her eyes were wide and frightened.

"Seizure," Leiko said matter of factly. "Is this your first one?"

"Seizure?"

"Ever taken Wunder?" Ricky asked.

"Wunder…?" Kaoru's eyes closed as she remembered Keelie. "Yes…"

"Nasty side-effect no one ever told you about I gather?" Leiko asked, she grinned humorlessly. "We need it y'know. And it kills us. Fun thing Wunder is." Her laugh was a bitter bark as lacking in humor as the grin on her face.

"Leiko!" Ricky cried, his voice was disapproving.

Leiko shrugged. "It's the truth."

"Do you… have… any?" Kaoru asked.

"Why should we give you any?" Leiko asked, the grin faded from her face and she cocked her head to the side calculatingly. "Tell me why?"

"Leiko!" Ricky sounded shocked. "She needs Wunder!"

"We need it too!" Leiko reminded him. "Why should we give any to her?"

"Please…" Kaoru whispered.

"Oh she said please!" Leiko laughed.

"Leiko stop being such a bitch," Ricky hissed, he grabbed for her arm but she danced out of reach.

"Was just having some fun," Leiko tossed her hair out of her eyes. "Fun y'know?"

"It's not funny," Ricky said. "Stop playing around please."

"Spoilsport," Leiko stuck her tongue out at him and sighed. "Fine then." She dug into her pocket and produced a small pouch. Opening it she pulled out one small pill of Wunder. "Here." She handed it to Kaoru who immediately put it in her mouth and swallowed.

"Now you have to pay us back." Leiko informed her.

"How?" Kaoru whispered softly, her eyes were closed and her face looked strained. It would take a few moments for the Wunder to take effect and while it did her body shook slightly. A full blown seizure had at least been headed off and halted.

"Hmm…" Leiko tapped her chin as she thought. "Get us food. Should be easy for you. You're a mind-reader. You can trick people and stuff."

"I don't know how…" Kaoru murmured. "I really don't know how."

Leiko snorted. "You'll have to figure it out then I guess. It shouldn't be too hard for you. I learned my powers easily enough. Just have to stay alive long enough to get a grip on them. Time is what you need mostly. Wunder will help with that. Going to have to teach you how to shield too I guess." She didn't sound happy about the prospect. "You're one of those kinds of Psychics that need to know how to do it."

"You're a Psychic too," Kaoru opened her eyes. "So what can you do?"

"I can move stuff," Leiko said cheerfully. "And if you ever piss me off I can break your neck."

Kaoru's eyes widened at that but she didn't say anything.

"So you better be good and you better do as I say. Got that?" Leiko asked.

"Yeah," Kaoru murmured. "I got that."

"Good," Leiko nodded. "Now, get up."

Kaoru got to her feet swaying slightly, Ricky moved forward and grabbed her arm, slinging it over his shoulders and helping her steady. Leiko scowled at him.

"She can barely walk Leiko." Ricky said defensively.

Leiko merely sniffed. "C'mon then," she turned on her heel and started walking away.

"Leiko's just like that," Ricky murmured to Kaoru as the two of them staggered off behind the girl. "Don't worry she's nicer once you get to know her."

"Where are we going?" Kaoru whispered softly.

"Home," Ricky replied. "We're going home."

Home, as Ricky called it was if anything smaller and dirtier than Keelie's place. It was an apartment complex in the heart of the City's poorest area. There was a lingering smell of smoke in the hallways and the walls were stained.

The apartment they lived in was on the third floor. Leiko moved quickly up the stairs and Kaoru's legs were aching, her knees shaking by the time they got there. The paint on the door was faded; once upon a time it might have been blue. There had been three numbers on the door, only one of which still remained: three. The others had long since fallen off leaving only their faint outline, lighter against the already fading colors.

Inside the walls were paper thin and through them Kaoru could hear people moving, the sharp cry of a baby.

"This is home?" Kaoru asked as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. There was no electricity in the building. Underfoot the floor was uneven and pitted. Had it once been tiled?

"This is home," Ricky confirmed as he maneuvered her carefully over to the sagging couch which dominated the room.

"It's nice," Kaoru said and surprisingly found she meant it.

Leiko blinked at her once in disbelief but didn't say anything.

"Is there anything to eat Leiko?" Ricky asked.

"There should be something," Leiko muttered. "We'll give you something to eat," she told Kaoru. "But after that you have to do your part. You can't eat the food we have unless you get some food for us all to share."

Kaoru nodded once, "Okay." She agreed. "That sounds fair."

Leiko's eyebrow rose. "Fair you say?" She seemed to find something humorous in Kaoru's words.

The next day Leiko woke Kaoru up early.

"Time for you to go."

"Go?" Kaoru's eyes widened.

"You have to go get food," Leiko rolled her eyes at Kaoru's expression. "You can't come back until you have food to share."

"But…" Kaoru protested, "I don't know how."

"You'll learn then won't you?" Leiko retorted. "You'll figure it out. Now's the best time to go get food. The sellers are putting it out and there's a crowd of people. You won't be noticed."

"But…" Kaoru tried to protest again.

"Shut up," Leiko told her.

Kaoru's mouth snapped shut.

"What's the big deal? You've been living on the streets how have you gotten food, if you haven't stolen it?"

Kaoru muttered something that sounded like 'garbage' and Leiko made a disgusted face. "That's gross. Don't do that, I'm surprised you haven't gotten sick and died from it yet. You need to get real food, not some people's throwaways."

"Stealing in a sin," Kaoru murmured.

"Orphanage brat?" Leiko rolled her eyes. "Nuns probably threw you out the second they discovered you were a Psychic and you _still_ want to do as they told you? They didn't do shit for you, so you can forget everything you were ever told. Got that?"

Kaoru nodded.

"Now go," Leiko made shooing motions. "Go get us food and don't come back until you've got us something."

Kaoru nodded once more and left.

Kenshin trailed her.

The market district of the area Kaoru was bustling with people. Kenshin saw Kaoru flinch at the assault of thoughts and voices that were no doubt invading her mind. He wondered if Leiko had decided to be especially cruel by sending Kaoru out, a mind reader, at the height of the busy hour of the morning market. He thought so. The fact that Kaoru had considered Leiko a part of her family made him grind his teeth.

Kaoru was doing her best to be inconspicuous, sticking to the shadows and sidelines and moving slowly. Her eyes were darting around watching everything carefully. She advanced slowly and carefully in the direction of a bread seller who was engaged in haggling over the price of a loaf of bread with a customer. The bread seller's head turned in Kaoru's direction and she froze. There was an odd light in Kaoru's eyes they met the bread sellers gaze. Her lips were moving soundlessly and Kenshin could almost make out the words.

'Forget me. I am not here.'

The sellers gaze slipped past her and returned back to the customer. No one seemed to notice as Kaoru reached over and snagged two loaves of bread. Clutching them to her chest, Kaoru backed away slowly and then turned, walking carefully away doing her best not to attract attention.

Her lips were still moving in that silent mantra and she waited until she was a good distance away before breaking into a run. No one seemed to notice her and her face flushed with excitement of what she had just done.

She ran all the way back to the apartment and she bounded up the stairs, blasting in. Leiko and Ricky were sitting on the floor with a pack of old and torn cards, playing some kind of game.

"I did it!" Kaoru announced.

"So I see," Leiko replied, she held out a hand. "Let me see."

Kaoru handed one of the loaves of bread to her.

Leiko tore off a chunk and popped it into her mouth. "Not bad," she said after chewing. She tore the loaf in half and tossed the other half to Ricky.

"Good job," Ricky said, taking his own bite. He patted the ground next to him. "Sit down and eat."

Kaoru grinned and sat down next to him, tearing into her own bread. "Will you teach me how to shield now?" She asked between mouthfuls.

Leiko favored her with a long look. "I suppose we'll have to."

Ricky reached over and tugged at Kaoru's hair gently. "Guess we're going to be keeping you."

Kaoru's grin widened more. "I can stay with you? Really?!"

"Yes, really," Leiko didn't sound too enthused about the prospect. "Next time see if you can get something other than bread got that?"

Kaoru nodded enthusiastically.

"Do you know how to play cards?" Ricky asked.

Kaoru shook her head.

"Guess I'll have to teach you," Ricky said. "I'll start teaching you how to shield after we play a game."

Eyes bright, Kaoru reached for the cards he had shuffled for her and listened attentively as he explained the rules.

The scene faded out after that.

Kenshin blinked and felt disorientated for a moment as Kaoru's memories faded from his mind. She was still curled up on the couch, fast asleep. She didn't make a sound as he picked her up and carried her back to her room. Kenshin closed the door behind him as he left; his mind on other things.

He had a few calls to make.

The groceries remained where he had left them, now forgotten.


End file.
